





K* A^ 













* 




















LEO N. LEVI 



MEMORIAL VOLUME 



LEO N. LEVI 

I. o. b."b. 

1905 



PRINTED BY 

HAMBURGER PRINTING CO. 

63-69 market street, 

chicago, ill. 






\G-otf.£ 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

LEO N. LEVI, 



A leader safe and sane, a thinker erudite and profound, an orator 
unexcelled in his generation, a man good and true, a distin- 
guished citizen of the United States, and an ideal Jew, this 
volume is dedicated by his admiring and sorrowing brethren, 

* THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF B'NAI B'RITH. 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 



The rendition of tribute to worth or greatness, is an attribute 
of advanced civilization, and in plastic marble, or responsive 
bronze, shaped by master hands, grateful Commonwealths often 
offer willing homage to their illustrious dead. 

But the imposing statue also perpetuates the memory of the 
gifted artist, whose wondrous skill endows the lifeless material 
with majesty, dignity, and the expressive lineaments of the 
human form divine. 

And thus the creator of the testimonial shares the fame of 
him, whose achievements are thereby commemorated. 

But a loyal Brotherhood offers a more unique memorial of 
its affection and regard for its inspired chieftain. 

It has sought no aid from the cultured imagination of me- 
chanical proficiency of stranger or friend, but has designed a 
monument, every part of which, from base to summit, is fash- 
ioned from material supplied by the intellect and industry of 
him it attempts to honor. 

Upon these pages, the sayings of a man born to lead, and 
fruitful in accomplishment, are faithfully transcribed. They bear 
incontrovertible testimony to the thoroughness and profundity 
of his knowledge; the wide range of his culture; his invincible 
logic; his faultless diction; his mastery of every subject he 
studied. 

They reveal his breadth of mind; his freedom from prejudice; 
his buoyant optimism ; his broad cosmopolitanism, as well as his 
unfaltering patriotism and devotion to his country. 

They chronicle his constant, sympathetic regard for the ailing 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 

and dependent of his own race ; his exalted conception of duty ; 
his consecration of his strongest efforts to the best interest of 
humanity at large ; his fealty to the faith of his fathers ; and his 
unswerving allegiance to the .beneficent Order he so conspicu- 
ously led to victory and success. 

It is singular that a man so lavishly gifted with the higher 
qualities of intellectual and moral manhood, — strikingly fitted to 
win distinction in the most exalted of official stations ; qualified 
to direct the policy of governments ; and equal to any responsi- 
bility which might be imposed upon him by his country, — did 
not, at any time, seek political preferment, or make any de- 
mands upon the suffrages of his fellow-man. 

Neither the glittering baubles, nor the substantial advantages 
of wealth had for him any allurements; he valued money, not 
as the end of effort, but solely as a means of doing good, and 
would not devote his time nor energies to its mere accumulation. 

The plaudits of the multitude never instilled in him ambi- 
tion for place or power; never tempted him to swerve from the 
pathway to the goal which was his ultimate aim. He was never 
dazzled by the seductive zeal of the theorist, but always safe and 
sane, he deliberately selected his field of duty, and within its 
environments there was none to excel him. 

Gradually, by the very force and strength of his character 
his sphere of operations was naturally enlarged, and when the 
civilized world was startled by the horrible crimes perpetuated 
upon the innocent and unoffending at Kischineff, Bessarabia, 
Russia, on the 19th of April, 1903, he then, as the executive of 
the greatest secular organization of Jews in America, displayed 
the highest qualities of the statesman in endeavoring to solve 
the grave and absorbing problems thus presented, made avail- 
able the moral force engendered by enlightened public sentiment 
aroused to the condemnation of outrage and wrong, and by his 
consummate ability achieved international renown. 

It was his crowning aspiration, after making sufficient pro- 
vision for his loved ones, to consecrate his labors to the better- 
ment of mankind. 



INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. J 

To aid in the accomplishment of his purpose, nature had 
served him well. He was tall in stature, and had the carriage 
and build of an athlete; a massive brow gave evidence of his 
powerful intellect, while his steady, penetrating, but kindly eyes, 
finely molded features and attractive personality, easily enchained 
attention. 

It was an unalloyed pleasure to listen to the resonant tones of 
his cultivated voice, which could easily reach the limit of the 
largest auditoriums, and which, at his will, could persuade and 
arouse to enthusiasm, the delighted hearers. 

He left no topic unembellished ; was never, in any discus- 
sion, at a loss for the proper word ; and his capacity as a debater 
and controversialist was remarkable. He did not know how to 
flatter, but sought to influence by the rectitude of his motives, 
and the convincing power of his talents. 

And he was equally facile with his pen. And thus, to take 
him all in all, he had no superior in his time and generation. 

He was singularly gifted as an after-dinner speaker, equal to 
any emergency, responding to every demand without effort or 
preparation, and commanding applause on every occasion, but 
no attempt has been made to reproduce here any of his extem- 
poraneous addresses. 

It is not the purpose to extend the dimensions of this volume 
by incorporating herein his speeches, or essays, of mere local 
interest. 

The celebrated "Kischineff Petition" was wholly prepared by 
him and is herewith appended: 

"To His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Russia: 

The cruel outrages perpetrated at Kischineff during Easter 
of 1903 have excited horror and reprobation throughout the 
world. Until your Majesty gave special and personal directions 
the local authorities failed to maintain order or suppress the 
rioting. The victims were Jews, and the assault was the result 
of race and religious prejudice. The rioters violated the laws 
of Russia. 



8 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 

The local officials were derelict in the performance of their 
duty. 

The Jews were the victims of indefensible lawlessness. 

These facts are made plain by the official reports of, and by 
the official acts following, the riot. 

Under ordinary conditions the awful calamity would be de- 
plored without undue fear of a recurrence. But such is not the 
case in the present instance. Your petitioners are advised that 
millions of Jews, Russian subjects, dwelling in Southwestern Rus- 
sia, are in constant dread of fresh outbreaks. 

They feel that ignorance, superstition and bigotry, as exempli- 
fied by the rioters, are ever ready to persecute them; that the 
local officials, unless thereunto specially admonished, cannot be 
relied on as strenuous protectors of their peace and security; that 
a public sentiment of hostility has been engendered against them 
and hangs over them as a continuing menace. 

Even if it is conceded that these fears are to some extent 
exaggerated, it is unquestionable that they exist, that they are 
not groundless, and that they produce effects of great im- 
portance. 

The westward migration of Russian Jews, which has pro- 
ceeded for over twenty years, is being stimulated by these fears, 
and already that movement has become so great as to over- 
shadow in magnitude the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and 
to rank with the exodus from Egypt. 

No estimate is possible of the misery suffered by the hapless 
Jews who feel driven to forsake their native land, to sever the 
most sacred ties, and to wander forth to strange countries. 

Neither is it possible to estimate the misery suffered by those 
who are unwilling or unable to leave the land of their birth, who 
must part from friends and relatives who emigrate, who remain 
in never ending terror. 

Religious persecution is more sinful and more fatuous than 
war. War is sometimes necessary, honorable and just; religious 
persecution is never defensible. 

The sinfulness and folly which give impulse to unnecessary 



INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 9 

war received their greatest check when your Majesty's initiative 
resulted in an international court of peace. 

With such an example before it the civilized world cherishes 
the hope that upon the same initiative there shall be fixed in the 
early days of the twentieth century the enduring principles of 
religious liberty; that by a gracious and convincing expression 
your Majesty will proclaim, not only for the government of 
your own subjects, but also for the guidance of all civilized men, 
that none shall suffer in person, property, liberty, honor or life 
because of his religious belief; that the humblest subject or 
citizen may worship according to the dictates of his own con- 
science, and that government, whatever its former agencies, 
must safeguard these rights and immunities by the exercise of 
all its powers. 

Far removed from your Majesty's dominions, living under 
different conditions and owing allegiance to another Govern- 
ment, your petitioners yet venture, in the name of civilization, 
to plead for religious liberty and tolerance ; to plead that he who 
led his own people and all others to the shrine of peace will 
add new lustre to his reign and fame by leading a new movement 
that shall commit the whole world in opposition to religious 
persecutions." 

On July 14th, 1903, this impressive document was, by the 
order of President Roosevelt, cabled, without alteration, to the 
American Charge d' Affaires at St. Petersburg, with a letter 
of introduction signed by Secretary Hay. The petition had 
nearly thirteen thousand signatures. 

Subsequently, the petition, with the signatures, was bound 
in a suitable volume, and on October 5, 1903, transmitted to the 
Secretary of State, accompanied by a communication from him, 
as President of the Executive Committee, from which we make 
the following extract: 

"For all time to come, it will testify to the love of justice, 
humanity and liberty which moved the President to give it 
countenance and its signers to father it. It stands as the verdict 
of the whole people condemning the denial of religious liberty, 



IO INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 

and upholding the President in asserting that condemnation. 
If it be without precedent, it is the more precious for becoming 
one. Civilization made a distinct and notable advance when a 
great nation of eighty millions of people, speaking not only 
through its official head, but also through its most representative 
citizens in their individual capacities, served notice on the world 
that those who are made to suffer martyrdom for conscience's 
sake, wherever they may abide, have friends and sympathizers 
in this country. Such an example will not be lost. The oppres- 
sor will hereafter pause before he strikes, and his victim will 
be saved from utter despair by the consciousness that the voice 
of humanity will be raised in his behalf. 

"In this view, the services rendered by the President, his ad- 
visers and the people generally, are not to be measured by the 
benefits conferred upon the Jews alone. This is one of the oft- 
recurring cases in which the Jews, by their misfortunes, have 
led the world to a just appreciation of the truths of which they 
are the devoted missionaries. 

"In every part of the world where Jews are to be found there 
is thanksgiving because the President and you and the entire 
American people have championed the cause of the oppressed. 

"Everywhere admiration has been excited, and in this coun- 
try the people are proud of the courageous humanity which has 
been displayed." 

On October 31, 1903, the Honorable John Hay, one of the 
greatest statesmen of the United States, universally loved and 
honored throughout this great land of liberty, made the fol- 
lowing remarkable acknowledgment: 

"October 31, 1903. 
"Leo N. Levi, Esquire, President of the Executive Committee 
of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, 723 Lexington 
Avenue, New York, N. Y. 

"My dear Sir: — 

"I have received at the hands of the Honorable Simon Wolf, 



INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. II 

your letter of the 5th of October. He has also delivered to me 
the bound copy of the Kischineff Petition. 

"It gives me pleasure to accept the charge of this important 
and significant document, and assign it a place in the archives 
of the Department of State. 

"Although this copy of your petition did not reach the high 
destination for which it was intended, its words have attained 
a world-wide publicity, and have found a lodgment in many 
thousands of minds. This petition will be always memorable, 
not only for what it contains, but also for the number and weight 
of the signatures attached to it, embracing some of the most 
eminent names of our generation, of men renowned for intelli- 
gence, philanthropy and public spirit. In future, when the 
students of history come to peruse this document, they will won- 
der how the petitioners, moved to profound indignation by 
intolerable wrongs perpetrated on the innocent and helpless, 
should have expressed themselves in language so earnest and 
eloquent and yet so dignified, so moderate and decorous. It is 
a valuable addition to public literature, and it will be sacredly 
cherished among the treasures of this Department. I am, 
Very respectfully yours, 

(Sd.) JOHN HAY." 

A brief sketch of the life of this great man, prepared by a 
friend of many years duration, and the Rabbi of the Congrega- 
tion at Galveston of which he was a member, Dr. Henry Cohn, 
is herewith appended. 

JOSEPH HIRSH, 

January 15, 1907. Vicksburg, Miss. 



12 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 



In New York City, at the dawn of day, on Wednesday, 
January 13th, 1904, all that was mortal of Leo N. Levi passed 
away. His death came as a terrible shock to his friends and 
acquaintances ; to his wife and children, brothers and sisters, it 
was as if the sun was obscured at noon-day. 

Mr. Levi was a born leader. Rising from the ranks, he mas- 
tered every position he held, and there was no situation that 
confronted him but to which he was equal. His fine diplomacy in 
the preparation of the Kishineff Petition, which was immediately 
accepted as framed, and its subsequent presentation to Russia, 
through the services of President Roosevelt and the late John 
Hay, is an instance of his acumen. "You are a great diplomat, 
Mr. Levi," said Mr. Hay, upon the former's suggesting the 
cablegram to Riddle at St. Petersburg as the best meaas of 
reaching the Czar, "and would make a great ambassador." To 
bring order out of chaos, whether he were dealing with com- 
munal, civic, or political problems, was his strong point. In 
numerous instances he saved the day for his people with honor 
to himself and to the cause he represented. "A great man," 
said President Roosevelt of him. Yea, we had no greater! 

Leo N. Levi was born in Victoria, Texas, September 15th, 
1856, one of a family of six children of Abraham and Mina Levi. 
Abraham Levi (born, Alsace 1822 ; died, Victoria, Texas, Novem- 
ber 30th, 1902) and settled in Victoria in 1849, engaging 
in mercantile pursuits. Having received the school education 
afforded by his native town, Leo, then a promising youth of 
sixteen, matriculated at the University of Virginia, where, after 
a brilliant college career, he was graduated in Law. He gained, 



INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 13 

among other University distinctions, the medal for the best 
University Magazine article, and the debater's medal — a coveted 
prize then, as it is now. It was while pursuing his college 
course that his courage and manliness, portending so much for 
his future, were first put on trial. As has often happened to 
our co-religionists, he was taunted with being a Jew, and he 
resented it verbally and physically. He won the admiration of 
his quondam antagonists (some of whom afterwards became 
his life-long friends) by his attitude; and when he passed 
through the portals of "Old Virginia," there was not a fellow 
student but thought it an honor to clasp his hand. 

In 1876, Leo N. Levi, fresh from his University laurels, 
entered the law office of Flournoy & Scott, at Galveston, Texas, 
within easy distance of the parental roof at Victoria. Prov- 
ing a most valuable asset to that prominent firm, he was offered 
a partnership, which he accepted. In 1877, he married Miss 
Ray Bachrach, the love of his college days, at Charlottsville, Va., 
and at the time of his sad demise, he had six surviving children. 
Making Galveston his home, he became, life and soul, a part of 
his environment, working for the best interests of his city, county, 
and state. Upon the retirement of the head of the law concern, 
with which he was connected, the firm, under the name of Scott 
& Levi, and subsequently Scott, Levi & Smith, was one of the 
best known, and most trusted legal establishments in the State. 
Mr. Levi resided in Galveston for 23 years (1876- 1899), taking 
laudable interest in all municipal affairs, and on many occasions 
of grave importance to the city, he was called upon to plead its 
cause before the Legislative bodies of the State. Such tasks 
he cheerfully undertook, often at great inconvenience to him- 
self, and at the sacrifice of his own business interests. And Gal- 
veston, the city of his adoption, recognizing his talent and worth, 
was not slow to do him honor. When the late President of the 
United States, Benjamin Harrison, visited the port for a formal 
celebration, the city asked Leo N. Levi and two other gentle- 
men to travel some distance to meet him, and also to be his 
constant companion during his stay. A clear thinker, a most 
eloquent and fearless speaker, a remarkable logician, he served 



14 INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 

his clients, individuals and corporations, with unswerving fidel- 
ity; and he was known far and wide as a true lawyer and a 
sound jurist. He was a faithful exponent of honorable citizen- 
ship. He never aspired to political preferment, although his 
exceptional abilities were always enlisted in the cause of good 
government. 

His public life did not lessen his allegiance to his co-religion- 
ists, to whom he was ever an able guide, and with whom he was 
an enthusiastic worker. In 1887, he was elected President of 
Congregation B'nai Israel at Galveston, and retained the office 
until his departure for New York. During those twelve years and 
prior to that, he affiliated with every local charitable, educational 
and social institution, occupying in all of them, at one time or 
another, positions of honor and responsibility. Intellectual cul- 
ture among his brethren was very dear to him, and only second 
to the desire he had for the amelioration of the condition of the 
oppressed Israelites all over the world. It was in Galveston 
that he became a member of the Independent Order of B'nai 
B'rith, a Jewish fraternal Organization, whose sphere extends 
to the four quarters of the globe. In due course he was elected 
president of District No. 7 of that Order, comprising seven 
southern states, and more than once he received engrossed tes- 
timonials setting forth his usefulness to his district Grand 
Lodge. In 1900, at the Constitution Grand Lodge in Chicago, 
Leo N. Levi was chosen President of the whole Order succeed- 
ing Mr. Julius Bien, who had then retired from the presidency 
to fill the position of Foreign Chancellor. As the head of the 
I. O. B. B., Mr. Levi was particularly influential in the appeal 
of the United States government to Roumania, in connection 
with the abominable Jewish policy of that kingdom and subse- 
quently presented to President Roosevelt the protest addressed 
to the Russian Government, consequent upon the horrible mas- 
sacre at Kishineff. In the conferences pending these negotiations 
Mr. Levi had several personal interviews with the President of 
the United States. The cable to the U. S. ambassador at St. 
Petersburg, a collaboration of John Hay and Leo N. Levi, em- 
bodying the Kishineff Petition, which Mr. Levi wrote himself, 



INTRODUCTION AND BIOGRAPHY. 1 5 

f will go down to history, and if the latter had accomplished 
nothing else in his life than the work incident upon this unique 
circumstance, notwithstanding the Czar's refusal to receive the 
matchless document, he would have served his life's purpose. 
But apart from this occurrence, his services to the I. O. B. B. 
and through this organization to the Jews of this country were 

' inestimable. As has been said above, Leo N. Levi was a noted 
speaker, having lectured in many states of the Union and on 
varied subjects. In 1899 he delivered the Commencement Lec- 
ture at the State University at Austin, "The Successful Life," 
which was acclaimed to be the best address ever heard within 
the walls of that institution, and which the faculty use today in 

r the classical department, as a specimen of inspiring thought and 
lofty diction. 

A devoted husband and father, an energetic worker in hu- 
manity's cause, an ideal and an inspiration to thousands of his 
fellow citizens, he was stricken down in the midst of a career 
whose usefulness gave promise of increase with years. But we 
know nothing; and subject to an inscrutable Providence, we can 
only bow our head in resignation, and pay this poor tribute to 
one whose like we shall not see again. 

Ascend Thou to heaven thou worthy son of Abraham ! Thou 
art mourned by hundreds of thousands ! Thy life has been well 
spent! Abide with Thy Maker to all eternity! 

HENRY COHEN. 
Galveston, Texas, May 15th, 1906. 



ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE. 

Bro. Leo N. Levi, in accepting the position, spoke as follows : 
Brethren of the Convention: I thank you for this great 
honor — for honor indeed it is. The feelings which arise in my 
breast engender a fear that I have taken upon myself a burden 
under which I shall stagger, if not fall. I told you last night I 
had little respect for mere words, and I shall vindicate that 
declaration by saying but little here now, and what I do say will 
be in the line of the performance of my duty. You are about 
to follow the election of your President by the election of other 
officers who are to co-operate with him and work with him in 
attaining the mission of our Order. I say to you and I say to 
them that I shall receive any expressions of discontent, any crit- 
icism of any remissness that is personal to myself with tender- 
ness, with gentleness and with a forgiving spirit. But I say to 
you upon this solemn and, I believe, historic occasion, that the 
man who is associated with me or subordinated to me who fails 
or falters in his duty to the Order will find me as unrelenting 
and as severe as if I commanded an army in the face of a dan- 
gerous foe. I said to one who will probably be on the Executive 
Committee, and I repeat it now, that if at any time during my 
administration a single member of that Committee by reason 
of his business engagements, sickness or other cause fails to per- 
form the duties of his office, I shall expect his resignation, and 
if it is not forthcoming, I shall ask it, and I make that announce- 
ment to you now because I don't want to then be accused of au- 
tocracy or of despotism. I make the declaration now because I 
want your sanction to that declaration of policy, and if you dis- 
sent from it, I want a declaration of dissent. I make the decla- 
ration now because I want you to bear it in mind when you se- 
lect the members of your Executive Committee, and I want the 

16 



ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE. 17 

candidates for those positions to keep it in their minds when 
they accept the responsibility. If I stand on the bridge of your 
vessel in the storm and in the calm to guide her on her course, I 
want to know that my mates, my engineers and my crew are 
equally vigilant and equally diligent in the performance of the 
duties that are assigned to them, and I shall exact it. 

It has been said that we are entering upon a new era in the 
destiny of the Jew. I believe that, I believe it firmly. I stated 
years ago that I believed that the salvation of Judaism was the 
American-born Jew. I have traveled over this land and I find 
our young men and our young women, unversed as they are in 
the old traditional forms and ceremonies, strangers to the ritual 
around which cling so many tender memories in the minds of our 
older people, yet animated, inspired and uplifted by the quicken- 
ing love which they bear to the old ancestral faith, and craving 
for media of expression for that feeling. They seek it in good 
works, in charitable deeds, in the amelioration of the condition 
of our f ellowmen ; and I believe that when we bring to them the 
mission which has sustained us so long, when we make apparent 
to them that here is the field for their activity, that we will gain 
from them that co-operation, in the need of which we so sorely 
stand. But we must carry our wares to them, we must inspire 
them with the courage that has sustained us, and with the in- 
fusion of new spirit and new energy and new aspiration create 
a new epoch, not for ourselves but for the people for whom this 
Order stands. And it does stand for the people — the greatest 
organiztion among the Jews known in the history of the world, 
spread over all the world, conducted by its representative men, it 
stands for the Jew and for Judaism. And, filled with that con- 
viction can you wonder that, strong man as I am and well bal- 
anced as I am, for that quality has been attributed to me, that I 
assume the position of your leader with a faltering heart, with a 
faltering tongue. I know the responsibility. I know the weight 
that I have taken upon myself, and I know how much it behooves 
me and you to invoke the aid of Almighty God and the loving 
and loyal co-operation of every man who has enlisted under the 
banner of the B'nai B'rith — not because it will do him good, not 



l8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

because it will glorify him, but because it will do good to those 
that need good ; because the voice of music in him sings in good 
deeds — good deeds always and ever and at whatever sacrifice. 

I will accept yoar leadership on this platform and with that 
pledge from you, and I will carry on the work as long as I have 
the power to do so and the capacity to do so and the opportunity 
to do so ; and as long as you stand by me in that work I pledge 
you this — I pledge you this — that I shall watch myself even more 
closely than I do you, and if ever there comes the time when by 
reason of my business engagements, of physical infirmity, or 
whatever it may be, I cannot devote to this work what it de- 
serves, I shall demand the resignation of your President. 

I remember one of the most impressive incidents in the his- 
tory of Germany, when Field Marshal Von Moltke went to the 
Emperor and said: "Sire, I tender my resignation. I can no 
longer mount my horse." It was the magnificent spectacle of the 
soldier and the patriot who set duty up above all other things. 
And whenever any consideration makes it impossible for me to 
put my foot in the stirrup and leap into the saddle, I shall follow 
his example. We have had a noble exhibition of that spirit here 
today; and it is with the greatest pleasure that I advert to the 
great services and the long services which we have enjoyed at 
the hands of him who now retires from the chief executiveship 
of this Order, with all the glory and magnificence of the setting 
sun. (Great applause.) As I witnessed the scene here this morn- 
ing and thought of myself as the successor of that man who has 
laid down the sceptre of power, I was reminded of the tree 
which grows where I spent most of the years of my life, on the 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico — the salt cedar — that grows best 
in storm and stress of weather, and at last, when, succumbing to 
the inroads of time and the assaults of the elements it bends to the 
earth to give wp its life, there shoots from its side as it reclines 
on the ground, new roots from which springs a fresh and vigor- 
ous growth. And 60, sir (addressing Bro. Bien), I say to you 
that your work is not ended with your retirement, for from those 
works, from those achievements there will spring a growth of 



ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE. 19 

vigorous trees that will arise from the roots that you have plant- 
ed. (Great applause.) 

Now, my friends, I thank you for all that is personal in this 
election — and for nothing else. I do not consider the honor, I 
consider the burden. If I live long enough to meet you five years 
from now, and if I can say to you in the official reports and war- 
ranted by the official facts, that I have achieved something, I 
want that to be my eulogy and nothing else. 

I thank you. (Great applause.) 



THE MODERN DISPERSION. 

Address delivered at Wilson Street Temple, Cleveland, Ohio, 
May 17, 1903, by Leo N. Levi, during the convention of District 
Grand Lodge No. 2, I. O. B. B. 

The full importance of contemporary events is rarely appre- 
ciated. History remains to most men a sealed book unless it 
deals with the remote past. The rulers and teachers, the sages 
and prophets, are those who are able to measure present occur- 
rences in the light of the past, and foresee the future in the light 
of both. 

Every Jewish child knows and understands the story of the 
Exodus ; of the Babylonian captivity ; of the Asmonean wars ; of 
the destruction of Jerusalem; of the Diaspora; of the expulsion 
from Spain. Each of these epochs furnishes materials for a 
sublime epic, and the materials have been freely employed by 
poets and minstrels. 

The heroism of achievement and endurance, so prominent 
in Jewish history, appeals to all men strongly, to the Jews irre- 
sistibly. At some time in the life of every manly boy he has 
deplored that he did not live in the age of chivalry ; that he was 
denied the triumphs and glories of knight-errantry. The manly 
Jew at all times envies those who were enabled against Egyptian, 
Babylonian, Syrian-, Roman or Spaniard, to exhibit in action or 
martyrdom the indestructible spirit of his race. There is a pe- 
culiar charm about past occurrences. They come, filtered, to us 
through the souls of historians, poets, artists and musicians. 
Their odious features have been eliminated, and what is left of- 
fers no offense to the aesthetic or artistic sense. 

The history of the present lacks these advantages. It has not 
been set in artistic order. It has not been freed from its obnox- 
ious elements. It has not been refined. It is unsettled, crude, 
nauseous ; full of grime, dirt, blood, sweat and offal. When we 

20 



MODERN DISPERSION. 21 

see the soldier in his camp, living in filth, infested by vermin, 
violating the laws of health, ignoring in speech and conduct the 
precepts of morality, made coarse and growing coarser by his. 
environment, we are prone to call him a degenerate. We con- 
trast him with the heroic men who fought for our liberties in the 
romantic ages of the past. But the heroes of the past, hpwever 
they appear in song and story, were in their day like unto the 
unattractive man we now decry, and the latter in times to come 
will be scoured and take his place along with the others in the 
chronicles of the heroic dead. 

It is not only a canon of taste, but also a law of justice, 
which makes the historian deal mainly with the virtues and light- 
ly with the shortcomings of mankind. To err is human. Sinful- 
ness, if not inherent and original, is so common that it is not dis- 
tinguishing. It is always in evidence, and moves along an easy 
downward path. Virtue, on the other hand, while abiding in ev- 
ery soul, is repressed by selfishness and must ever struggle up- 
ward along thorny ways. When it is in evidence, it is, therefore, 
a distinction. In the final judgment of men, what good they have 
done and what evil they have resisted must be the controlling 
considerations. The rewards of virtue cannot with justice be 
withheld, because with virtue is commingled the infirmities com- 
mon to mankind. The Pentateuch has doubtless left unchron- 
icled many sins that might with truth be imputed to its great 
characters, and even as it is, of none of its notables can it be 
said he was faultless. Yet we revere and love them, not for their 
faults, but in spite of them ; and because, in their lives, if virtue 
was not always the exclusive possessor, it was the dominator. 

In dealing with our contemporaries we are not so just. We 
are apt to magnify the faults of others by comparison with our 
own virtues, and to belittle their virtues by comparison with 
our own imperfections. Instead of employing a standard by 
which to measure them and ourselves alike, we make standards 
of ourselves, and condemn all who fall short of or go beyond it. 
This infirmity is largely responsible for the failure to appreciate 
the great historical crisis through which the Jews are now pass- 
ing, and the duties arising therefrom. 



22 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

During the past twenty-three years the world, without un- 
derstanding it, has witnessed a radical change in the situation of 
the Jews. It is still in progress, and will doubtless continue to be 
for many decades. In some respects it is similar to the Exodus, 
but, more properly speaking, it is the Modern Dispersion. 

During many generations the majority of the Jews have 
dwelt in Russia, Galicia, Roumania and Hungary. In Russia 
and Galicia alone their number reached almost to five millions. 
It is needless to dwell on their condition. The story is well 
known. Suffice it to say that a little over twenty years ago the 
Jews begaa to leave these countries in large numbers, and that 
since then there has been an uninterrupted flow of immigration 
to the Orient, to Western Europe, to South America, and last, but 
not least, to the United States. 

During the period under consideration ten per centum of 
the Jews of the world forsook their native homes in Eastern 
Europe and took up new abodes in this country. At the present 
time this influx to the United States equals or exceeds annually 
one-half of one per cent of the world's total Jewish population. 
Add to this number those who settle in Western Europe, the 
Levant, the West Indies, Central and South America, South 
Africa and Canada, and we can readily foretell that within the 
first half of the twentieth century the Jewish center of gravity 
will be far removed from Eastern Europe. Indeed, since the 
stream to the United States grows larger with the passing years, 
we may count with some confidence that in this century the ma- 
jority of the world's Jews will have established there domicile 
here, or certainly on the Western Hemisphere. The migration 
from Eastern Europe in our day is strikingly like the migration 
from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, except that in the 
expulsion from Spain not over three per cent of the world's Jews 
were, while now considerably more than one-half are, involved. 

In short, the present dispersion has all of the tragic and ro- 
mantic features of the Spanish expulsion, is impelled by an equal 
intolerance, endured with equal martyrdom, but exceeds it in 
interest and importance, because Spain only had, at most, three 



MODERN DISPERSION. 23 

hundred thousand Jews, while Eastern Europe is driving forth 
five millions. 

The effect of the expulsion from Spain need not be more than 
mentioned. It is a well known historical fact. What is important 
now to study is the effect of the immigration now in progress. 
It must not be belittled because the immigrants are poor, igno- 
rant, superstitious, narrow, untidy, or otherwise unattractive. 
The Jews who fled from Egypt were infinitely below the stan- 
dard of these. Those who were driven from Jerusalem by the 
Romans were not superior to the Jews who are now on the 
march. Even the Spanish refugee, around whom glows the halo 
of romance, had the shortcomings of mankind in full measure. 
Nor can we make unfavorable comparisons by weighing the 
causes of the various migrations now under consideration. It 
may be conceded that the Tsar is not a monster, and that the 
Russians are not consciously unjust to the Jews. The same be 
conceded to the King of Roumania and his subjects. It may be 
further conceded that the Jews in Russia and Roumania are un- 
desirable, and even obnoxious from a view-point which we do not 
occupy, and which, if erroneous, is nevertheless believed to be 
correct. 

Must we not concede as much to Pharaoh, to Rome, to Spain ? 
Even as we know the past, such concessions are demanded, and 
let us not forget that we know the past only from view-points 
variant from or opposite to those of the Egyptians, the Romans 
and the Spaniards ! They had their sides in the argument, just 
as Russia and Roumania now have theirs. History has con- 
demned the views of Egypt, Rome and Spain. It will doubtless 
condemn Russia and Roumania. Its judgment has not been based 
in the former, nor will it be in the present cases, upon the unim- 
peachable virtues of the Jews among men, but simply and solely 
upon the fact that they were and are members of the human 
family. It was and is unjust to oppress them, not because they 
were or are better than their oppressors, but because, whatever 
their failings, they are human beings, and as such entitled to hu- 
mane treatment. Any other view is poetical, sentimental and 
romantic, but it is misleading and unjust. 



24 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

The verdict of the historian, however, need not trouble us 
now. Our task is to see now what the historian will easily make 
out when time gives a perspective and the atmosphere is clear of 
the dust and smoke of the conflict. What is our verdict? And 
how will it affect our conduct? Such questions may not be re- 
garded as academic by any one, certainly not by any Jew. To 
him, wherever he dwells and whatever his condition, these ques- 
tions are pressingly practical. What is his view of the modern 
Dispersion? And how will that view impel him to act? How 
will the American Jew, and especially the well-to-do and culti- 
vated American Jew, respond? 

The problem is not a little complicated by prejudices of vari- 
ous kinds. The Jews are favorites only of God. Their fellow- 
men, for one reason or another, or no reason at all, refuse to en- 
dorse the decree of Heaven, which has singled Israel out as a 
peculiar and chosen band. Even though the rejected stone has 
again and again been divinely honored as the chief corner-stone, 
it has been denied recognition by man. This lack of atonement 
between man and God is, however, not unique. There are other 
differences as well. 

The Jews do not regard anti-Semitism with contentment or 
patience. On the contrary, they >resent it as a gross injustice. 
But they have grown accustomed to it and meet it as an inevita- 
ble evil. United against the hostility of the world, the Jews draw 
comfort from one another and the splendid heritage left by their 
ancestors. There exist, however, prejudices among the Jews 
themselves, which to the Gentile at least must appear marvelous. 

These prejudices are based on many classifications not now 
necessary to be considered. The one classification of greatest im- 
portance is that which sets on one side the Jews of Western Eu- 
rope and the United States, variously called the Reformed, the 
Modern, and the German and American Jews, and on the other 
the Jews of Russia, Galicia, Roumania and other East European 
countries, variously called Russian, Polish or Orthodox Jews. 
For convenience, let us call the former Western and the latter 
Eastern Jews. 

As a rule the Western Jews have absorbed Western civiliza- 



MODERN DISPERSION. 2$ 

tion, and bear lightly or not at all the yoke of the Torah. As a 
rule, to the Eastern Jews Western civilization is yet unknown, 
and they adhere to the same religious views and practices which 
prevailed centuries ago. The Western Jew has a modern educa- 
tion, and speaks with facility the language of his native land ; the 
Eastern Jew's education is largely religious, and his mother 
tongue is the jargon known as Yiddish. The points of difference 
between the Eastern and Western Jews are numerous and im- 
portant, but not so much so as each believes. The prejudices of 
each against the other magnify the differences and the faults 
which each ascribes to the other on account thereof. 

The Western Jew treats his co-religionist from Eastern Eu- 
rope as an inferior. He considers him ignorant, superstitious, 
bigoted, hypocritical, cunning, ungrateful, quarrelsome, unclean, 
and in many other ways abominable. 

The view of the Western Jew is superficial, hasty and wholly 
unjust. It is based largely upon hearsay, and otherwise upon 
loose generalizations made from very limited observations. The 
Eastern Jews are looked upon en masse, and not as individuals. 
Each is considered as possessing all the faults charged to the 
class, and all are misjudged by the failings that are noticed in a 
few individuals. Those who like the Eastern Jews least, know 
them least ; their best friends are those who know them well. 

It is, not proposed to claim extraordinary virtues for the 
Eastern Jews. They are human, and have the vices as well as 
the good qualities of the human family. Among them are exem- 
plars of the highest and lowest elements of the human make-up. 
A close study of them begets always a forecast of a noble future. 
Of their status at present it would be well for those who know 
them only by hearsay to remember the quaint old admonition: 
"Let the greater part of what thou hearest be the least part of 
what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest 
be the least part of what is true." 

In the eyes of the Eastern Jew the Western Jew is a cad. His 
education is superficial and flashy; his philanthropy ostentatious 
and insincere; his manners a cheap imitation of the Gentiles, 
upon whom he fawns; his religion a miserable compromise, in 



26 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

which appearances count for everything; his assumption of su- 
periority another proof that "every ass thinks himself fit to stand 
among the king's horses." 

The Western Jew as a rule, because of his prejudices, re- 
mains indifferent or hostile to the great migration to which I 
have adverted. The Eastern Jew, on the other hand, defiantly 
stands on his inherent rights, and jeeringly foretells the decadence 
of his traducers, just as the Sephardim passed out before the in- 
rush of the ancestors of the present Jewish aristocracy. 

The Eastern Jew is superficial, hasty and unjust in his views. 
He is guilty of the same errors that he complains of in the 
Western Jew. He takes counsel of his passions, and refuses to 
see the good qualities of those who are serving while they anger 
him. 

Thoughtful men among both classes deplore these differences 
and seek to remove them. However great the differences, they 
are small by comparison with the similarities. No Jew can es- 
cape his inheritance, even if he would. All Jews are brethren, 
whether or not they like the fact or one another. Cain was 
Abel's brother, though he slew him. 

This fraternity, moreover, is always in evidence. If the poor 
Eastern Jew is murdered in Bessarabia, the daintiest Western 
Jew makes an outcry of horror. If an aristocratic Western Jew 
is made a martyr on Devil's Island, the most intense Eastern Jew 
groans in sympathy. 

In some way the blood relationship always asserts itself. The 
Jews may hate, despise, contemn and abuse one another, but let 
an outsider take up the same cue and the brotherhood engenders 
harmony. Perhaps this is rather humane than Jewish. At all 
events, the Jews throughout their history have been famous for 
their family quarrels, which were composed when outsiders at- 
tacked the family. The present differences will be composed, as 
have all others in the past, but is it necessary to wait for time or 
a common peril to establish the mutual consideration, respect and 
affection that should of right obtain? Shall we not profit by ex- 
perience and study? Shall foolish passions aggravate evils which 
wise thought can remove? 



MODERN DISPERSION. 27 

The circumference and diameter of the universe are unknown 
quantities, but each man has its center fixed in himself. The ego- 
ism to which this is due is neither altogether bad or good. It is 
a mixed composite of evil and virtue. To the extent that it dig- 
nifies the individual and makes him a conservator of his own wel- 
fare,, it is a blessing. On the other hand because of it the indi- 
vidual is apt to make too much of himself and too little of others. 
When a man establishes and maintains in his thought and con- 
duct the proper relation between himself and the rest of the 
world, he is always good and often great. Few attain this, but it 
is true that many seek it. To these it is helpful to consider and 
discuss at frequent intervals the privileges and duties of life, so 
that not only may general principles be preserved, but the correct 
application thereof made to the details of life. 

The Eastern Jew, which term includes both foreigners and 
their immediate descendants, must learn that he is not a law 
unto himself; that he is a part of a larger community; that his 
situation affects others besides himself; that these others have 
a right to study and aid in solving his problems ; that it is il- 
logical and ungrateful to accept material aid while resenting 
friendly interest and counsel; that Western Jews are not apos- 
tates because they are not observers of the Schulcan Aruch ; that 
the prejudices which he resents are nourished by the prejudices 
which he himself indulges in. The inevitable and irresistible ten- 
dency of his children is toward Occidentalism, and unless he cul- 
tivates harmony and sympathy with the Western Jew, he must 
stand on the brink of an ever-widening chasm between himself 
and his own offspring. It is well enough to hate what is evil in 
his Western brothers, but he must not hate them. Hate begets 
hate, just as love begets love. In the war of angry passion the 
Eastern Jew may indeed triumph through the force of over- 
whelming numbers, but such a victory would be more disastrous 
than a defeat. There should be no triumph of what is peculiar 
to either class, for the peculiarities are seldom good ; the victory 
should be for the humanity which is common to both. 

It goes without saying that a respectable proportion of West- 
ern Jews are deeply moved by the Modern Dispersion, and testify 



28 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

by innumerable sacrifices that they understand and are perform- 
ing the duties which it imposes on them. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, there yet remain many who, either because of ignorance or 
injustice, look with cold indifference or hot hostility upon the ar- 
rival of their suffering co-religionists. This is true even in the 
United States, where it might be expected that American birth, 
American training and American ideals would engender extra- 
ordinary tenderness towards brethren who suffer martyrdom for 
conscience's sake. 

Every American Jew should read or re-read of the expulsion 
from Spain as told in the history of Ferdinand and Isabella by 
the American historian Prescott. There he will find almost the 
same conditions which now prevail. Under Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella the Jews were denounced for the same faults and crimes 
now laid at their doors in Eastern Europe. They were charged 
with being parasites, usurers, non-producers; with being osten- 
tatious, gaudy and vulgar, and above all, with murdering Chris- 
tians to obtain their blood for the Passover bread. When they 
were forced to leave Spain on the fateful ninth of Ab, in 1492, 
they were impoverished, and they carried to other lands, and 
especially to Italy, not only their poverty, but the plague, which 
was produced by their pitiable sufferings. Wherever they went, 
for a time at least they proved a burden, if not a positive injury, 
to the native Jews. 

This expulsion was not only defended by the Spaniards of 
the fifteenth century, but also by the writers of other Christian 
countries. Indeed, during the succeeding centuries, the terrible 
tragedy which involved so many lives and entailed so much mis- 
ery has been cited as evidence of Spanish piety and the just pun- 
ishment which is visited upon the miserable Jew. 

Three hundred thousand persons, according to Graetz — fewer 
than two hundred thousand according to Prescott — were driven 
out of Spain. More than four centuries have passed since that 
awful occurrence, and yet the horror of it grows instead of pass- 
ing away. Who would dare in this country at least to say a 
word in defense of Spain's intolerance, or utter aught but sym- 
pathy for her victims? And yet the Jews being driven from 



MODERN DISPERSION. 29 

Roumania are as many as were in Spain; those who have fled 
from Russia and Galicia to the United States in twenty years 
more than double the number of the Spanish Jews. 

Who can find fault with the Spanish Jews who brought the 
plague to Genoa, whither they fled? In many European cities 
in which the refugees sought an asylum were Jews whose position 
was assured until the refugees placed it in jeopardy. Were 
these few established Jews of more account than the refugees? 
Were they entitled to immunity from the real or fancied dan- 
gers due to the dispersion of the Spanish Jews? What were 
their rights and duties? The same question demands an an- 
swer now at the hands of the American Jew. 

It is contended by some that the American Jews had won 
a proud station in this country before the dispersion began; 
that politically, socially and economically they were prosperous, 
and highly respected; that the Eastern Jews have endangered 
the prestige previously enjoyed; that they have driven the 
American Jews out of certain lines of business and threaten 
to monopolize many others; that they congest our seaboard 
cities, and, finally, that they in many ways bring odium to the 
Jewish name. 

If all this were true, what then? Does it justify the perse- 
cutions here which are denounced when practiced in Eastern 
Europe? Does it justify hostility to a people who seek an asy- 
lum in the land which is great because it has been from the 
beginning the refuge of the oppressed? Whatever may be said, 
truly or falsely, about the Eastern Jews, we must find ouc 
proper relation to the problem they present. The American 
people as a whole has taken its stand on the broad platform of 
sympathy and humanity. The American Jew who in this crisis 
is less humane and sympathetic than the whole American people 
is neither a good American nor a good Jew. 

If it were necessary to choose between the welfare of the 
one million Jews in this country and the millions who must 
ultimately come here, justice would turn to the greater number. 
The millions are on the march. The dispersion is on in full 
force. No power on earth can stop it. Potentates and legions 



30 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

are powerless to stem the tide. The few Jews who selfishly 
deplore the immigration to this country may as well resign 
themselves to the inevitable first as last. The current of the 
Mississippi cannot be reversed by imprecations or the onrush 
of Niagara stopped by making faces at it. 

It is, however, a grievous error to spell danger or misfor- 
tune to the Western Jews from the dispersion of the Eastern 
Jews. If the former have in the course of generations thrown 
off many useless impediments, they have suffered along with 
them the loss of many family jewels. The idealism, the poetry, 
the ascetic virtues, the family sanctity, the religious fervor, 
which were formerly so accentuated in Jewish life, have been 
in a measure lost in the process which eliminated certain Orient- 
alisms that are found and decried in the contemporary Eastern 
Jews. The American Jews will profit by contact with the re- 
positories of ancient Jewish virtues. For this advantage they 
can make an adequate return by aiding the newcomer to throw 
aside the faults which the Western Jew has gotten rid of. The 
two classes must be complementary. Each has its faults and its 
virtues. If folly prevails the virtues of neither will survive; if 
wisdom governs, the contact of the classes will minimize the 
worst qualities of each and start from the Modern Dispersion a 
chapter in Jewish history as glorious as any that precedes it. 
And this wisdom is to the fore. Broad men in both classes are 
assuming the leadership. The gospel of discord and hate is 
giving way to the gospel of harmony and love. The monger of 
sneers and denunciations has had his day. The forces of destruc- 
tion are spent and those of construction are growing. The con- 
temned beggar of twenty years ago is the man of affairs to-day ; 
the beggar of to-day will be a man of substance in the near 
future. The arrogant and shallow minded inheritor of his fath- 
er's wealth without his father's thrift will pass out with the 
wealth he has not the wit to preserve. There will be a com- 
mingling of the classes to make a stronger and better class. It 
is manifest destiny. 

The duty to promote the betterment of both so that the in- 
evitable end may be better, surer and sooner is obvious. History 



MODERN DISPERSION. 3 1 

is being made at a tremendous pace, and it is being written while 
it is being made. In a few years we shall see on this continent 
a re-born, rehabilitated, virile, powerful Jewry, enriching the 
world with its virtues, its energies and its genius. Those who 
contribute to the chronicle which is being made up will in their 
own lives and in those of their children gather fruits from the 
seeds they have planted. Those who remain deaf to the call 
of duty, who do not rise to the standard of their country and 
their race, must inevitably forfeit the respect of their fellow- 
men at large as well as the social, political and economic rewards 
which now quicken in the womb of the future for the Jews. 

The Modern Dispersion means on this hemisphere the re- 
generated Jews in whom shall be united what is best among the 
dispersed, and from whose numbers will be eliminated the weak- 
lings, the degenerates and the unfaithful. 



ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL 

CONFERENCE OF JEWISH CHARITIES, 

HELD AT DETROIT, MICH., 

MARCH, 1902. 

Mr. President, in a circular which I had sent forth a year 
ago in my official capacity as the Chairman of the Executive 
Committee of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, and in 
which circular I dealt with what is known as the removal work 
of Roumanian immigrants and the dwellers in the Ghetto of 
New York, I employed a sentence which I beg to read now as 
the text of what I am about to say: "The Jew must be taught 
that no era in Jewish history exceeds the present in importance 
and solemnity, and that to play a proper role therein is a high 
privilege and a higher duty; that it is the concern of each Jew 
to rescue his brethren from poverty, disease and death, and, 
above all, to give to their boys the chance to become honest men, 
and their girls the sacred right to remain pure." 

I realize that I am addressing an audience composed not of 
the rank and file, but of the leaders of communal Jewish activity 
in the United States, and that my auditors are familiar with the 
larger outlines of every Jewish question which challenges the 
attention of Jewish minds, and therefore I shall not go into the 
details in presenting thoughts that I wish to convey to you, and 
the first idea is to impress upon you the fact that this is a great 
historical era in Jewish affairs. We all know, from the teach- 
ings of our childhood, how great an event was the Exodus of 
the Jews from Egypt. We know that a civilization worthy of the 
name is broadly based upon that great event so full of glory and 
of gloom. Now if you will reflect for a moment upon the many 
thousands of Jews who left Egypt for the Holy Land, and if 
you will reflect that in the nature of things these Jews, while 
living in Egypt were not confined within any one locality, you 
must realize that the preparation at least for the emigration, if 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 33 

not the emigration itself, was not instantaneous. It must have 
proceeded over a considerable portion of time, and a very distinct 
parallel can be drawn between that exodus and subsequent migra- 
tions of the Jews under the stress of persecution. 

If we come t© the great event in the history of the Jews and 
observe their expulsion from Spain at the end of the fifteenth 
century, we must again realize, if we think of the subject, that 
that expulsion proceeded over a considerable duration of time. 
I know that until my mind was specially directed to it, I had a 
vague and nebulous idea that the edict went forth that the Jews 
should leave Spain, and that between sunrise and sunset Spain 
was rid of her Jews ; but when I come to think that, with all the 
facilities we have for moving the people across the Atlantic in 
this advanced era, it is a great achievement to move 100,000 
people from America to Europe during the summer, and when 
I reflect how imperfect were the facilities for transportation at 
the end of the fifteenth century, I must know, even without con- 
sulting passages of history, that the many thousands of Jews 
in Spain, many of whom were compelled to seek foreign parts, 
could not have abandoned their native country except after the 
lapse of considerable time. 

Now I mention this fact because I wish to impress upon you 
how strong is the parallel between the exodus in ancient history 
and the expulsion of the Jews in the middle ages, or at the end 
of the middle ages, and the great movement which began some- 
thing over twenty years ago from Southeastern Europe towards 
the Western Hemisphere. 

The movement has been continuous. It has been more acute 
at some periods than at others, but it has been a steady stream of 
Jews moving from Southeastern Europe to the western hemi- 
sphere, and mainly to the United States of America, and no one 
can tell you when that stream will be stopped unless the source is 
exhausted. Now it is no light thing in the history of so impor- 
tant a people as the Jews, to contemplate the complete transfer- 
ence of the balance of population from one hemisphere to an- 
other. And when you reflect that the influx of Jews during the 
past 21 or 22 years to this country has been at the rate of 50,000 



34 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

per annum, and that the total Jewish population of the world is 
variously estimated at from eight to eleven million, it is easy to 
understand that there may be people within the sound of my 
voice at this moment who will live to see the majority of the 
Jews of the world at home in the United States of America. 
So I think that when these plain facts are before you, it is easy 
to assent to my initial proposition that we are in the midst of a 
great Jewish historical era. 

Now we have our emotions aroused, we have our indignation 
aroused, we are driven to horror when we read or hear of the 
persecutions of the Jews in Egypt and their exodus from that 
land, and of the terrible edict which went forth under the reign 
of Ferdinand and Isabella, which drove the Jews to flee to 
poverty, and alas ! in many instances, to suicide as an alternative 
to dishonor. But we remain indifferent to the great historical 
movement that is going on in our own day — that stream which 
passes by our own door, the suffering which appeals to us by im- 
mediate contact with us. I have tried to understand why it is 
that so many people can have sentiments of pity and horror 
aroused by the far-off suffering Jews in Egypt and Spain, and 
yet turn with loathing and disgust from the suffering that now 
confronts us. And my analysis is this : 

Poverty and suffering are always loathsome, and history and 
art and literature abhor, eschew and avoid features of that kind. 
So that when the historian or writer sets down for the contem- 
plation of the artist, those things which occurred in Egypt or in 
Spain, he addresses himself to the work of the romantic and the 
beautiful and attractive side of the picture, even making suffer- 
ing attractive ; but when we are confronted with horror and 
with disease, with the terrors of persecution, when we are com- 
pelled to look at it with our eyes, and not through the eyes of 
the artist and poet, the seams, the faults, the patches and sores 
obtrude themselves upon us, and what is on the surface claims 
more attention than what is beneath. 

Now I ought not to be required to do more than to touch 
upon this point to these leaders of charity work, and I touch 
upon it because I hope you will teach those who come within 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 35 

the sphere of your influence the importance of this truth, that 
in dealing with charity and philanthropic problems, we must 
learn to look with an unflinching eye on those features, which 
are repulsive, because in the absence of the repulsive feature 
there is no adequate challenge for philanthropic work. Now, 
I have heard much in the course of my experience about meas- 
ures of one kind or another to stop this influx of people from 
Europe to the United States. Now and then some one introduces 
a bill in Congress or writes an article in the magazine or news- 
paper, and suggests a remedy for what seems to be an evil, and 
whenever that problem has come to me for consideration, I have 
solved it, at least to my own satisfaction, if not to any one's else, 
by this fact gleaned from the teachings of history, that wherever 
a people as such has been impelled by social economy or religious 
consideration to move from the home of their nativity, en masse, 
to some other part of the globe, there is no power under the 
sun that can stop them. There are no laws that can be put on 
the statute book, nor armies that can be marshalled on the 
frontiers, that will stop a people, who are driven by a force from 
the rear greater than any resisting force that can be put in 
front; and when a people are threatened with starvation at 
home, when they are deprived of the means of making a liveli- 
hood, when they are denied the right to rear their children with 
the rudiments of even a common school education, when they 
are forbidden by restrictive legislation and a hostile environment 
from making honorable men of their sons and pure women of 
their daughters, you can put no barriers in their pathway that will 
stop them from going elsewhere. That, I believe, is one of God's 
dispensations, and it goes beyond the power of man to set it aside. 
(Applause.) So that I think we may just as well settle down to 
the conviction that as long as the countries in Southeastern 
Europe, or anywhere else, persecute the Jews because they are 
Jews, deny them the right to make a living because they are 
Jews, those Jews are going to move out of the country in which 
they were born, because they are commanded to do so by cir- 
cumstances. And as President Harrison said in his second 
message (certainly one of his messages) to the country: "When- 



36 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

ever a country, by its treatment of a people, or by its laws, 
commands them to step out of that country, they give them a 
command to step into some other country." The command seems 
to have been interpreted in Roumania and in Galicia when they 
are ordered out of their country that they should step into the 
United States. They have been coming here for 20 odd years. 
Their coming has been looked upon with fear and trembling, 
but they have come nevertheless. Those who predicted untold 
disasters 20 years ago because of the influx of the Russian 
Jews have been refuted by the developments of the last two 
decades, because the refugees of 20 years ago are the artisans 
and manufacturers and the merchants and the bone and sinew 
of the Jewish part of this country today. (Applause.) 

And let me tell you another thing, my friends, even you who 
are disposed to turn up your noses at the Russian Jew and the 
Galician Jew and the Roumanian Jew, that just as certainly as 
the children of the Portuguese Jews in the middle of the 19th 
century were destined to meet with the descendants of the Ger- 
man Jews who came over in the middle of the century, just so 
certain it is that the sons of these derided Russian and Rou- 
manian and Galician Jews will meet with your daughters, and 
your sons will meet with their daughters. 

Now they are coming. Where do they come? They come 
to New York. The great steamship lines that are engaged in 
transportation are nearly all centered at New York as a port of 
entry. The statistics show that of a million who came to this 
country in 20 years, probably 90 per cent came into the port of 
New York. The statistics also show that over 60 per cent of 
those who arrive remain in New York, certainly in the first 
instance. Now what becomes of them in New York? It was 
said here this morning by a very interesting representative from 
Kansas City that these people who go out from New York 
think so much of us in New York that they want to get 
back. Now that strikes me as humorous, but it is tragic. 
It is worthy of your consideration. If you had an opportunity 
to see the conditions in New York, you would understand why 
it is that they want to get back. The so-called Ghetto of New 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 37 

York, bounded on the north by Houston Street, on the west by 
the Bowery, and running southward and eastward to the river, 
contains as many Jews as Detroit contains people. The whole 
city of Detroit, if crowded into that little section, would displace 
a similar number of Jews who have come to this country from 
Southeastern Europe in the last 20 years, and their descendants. 
And that is a very small territory. There are thousands, yea, 
tens of thousands of citizens in the city of New York, a good 
many of them Jews, who have never set foot in that territory. 
Just think of dumping the whole city of Detroit down into the 
city of New York, and a large proportion of the city of New 
York, not knowing it was there, — but that is the fact. It is a 
region almost unknown to a very large portion of the population 
of New York, and, of course, it goes without saying, unknown 
to those who do not live in that vicinity. In that region the 
language that is spoken is the traditional Yiddish of the Jews. 
In the stores, the articles they were accustomed to purchase in 
the land of their nativity are offered for sale. The signs are 
written in their own language in the Hebrew character. The 
cafes and places of amusement, the theater hall, the dance hall, 
everything is there which they were accustomed to, and what- 
ever their tastes, whether good or evil, demand, is purveyed for 
their gratification. They think in their own language; they can 
worship there according to the rituals they are accustomed to; 
their atmosphere is one which they are acquainted with, and all 
other atmospheres are foreign to them. Now if you take any 
one of this audience and suddenly transport him to a foreign 
land, if there be a group of Americans in any one portion of 
that foreign country, it would be perfectly natural for you and 
me to gravitate to that little colony. And we would not like 
to get out into the interior of the country where we did not know 
the language of the country, the geography of the country, the 
habits of the people ; where no one could understand us, and we 
could understand no one. A feeling of homesickness would over- 
come us, our hearts would become terrified, and if that would 
be true of us who are presumed to have at least some under- 
standing of the configuration of this globe and of the difference 



38 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

in nationalities and habits and customs of peoples, how much 
more so must that be true of a class of people whose whole world 
had no larger horizon than the little town in which they were 
born and raised in some obscure part of Southeastern Europe? 
For them to come to America means for them to come to New 
York. They have an idea that what lies beyond the limits of 
New York is a wilderness ; that once they get away from the 
Ghetto they lose the friends they were accustomed to; that if 
sickness, trouble or death comes they have no one to turn to. 
If they are religiously inclined — and the Russian Jews are — 
they have no place in which they can worship in harmony out- 
side of the Ghetto. And so they cling there tenaciously, even to 
the brink of starvation rather than to go out into a wilderness 
or to give up that which is so precious to them. But the limit 
has been reached. It was reached long ago. You have heard 
papers here on the subject of tuberculosis, mentioned by the 
President in his message also. You will hear others dealing 
with conditions in the New York Ghetto. Some of the speakers 
and some of those who have written papers have toyed with the 
fringes of the garment so to speak. Perhaps none of them are 
qualified to deal adequately with the subject. If there be any 
one here who is so qualified, and who should discharge the duty 
of acquainting the public with it, you would have no time to 
listen to anything else. But let me tell you, and I will call 
witnesses to prove the proposition, that no man, however intel- 
ligent or industrious in his reading and his research, can form 
the remotest idea of the conditions prevailing in the lower portion 
of New York, unless he goes there and makes personal inspec- 
tion. Now I can not deal with these conditions today because 
time does not permit, but I can give you a few side lights. I 
want to tell you just one little instance. At 11 o'clock at night 
I, together with some companions, sat in a famous cafe on Canal 
Street, and while we were drinking the Russian tea, I heard a 
flutter at my elbow, and turned around, and there discovered 
a little girl about 13 years of age with a head of hair that would 
be worth a fortune to a painter, with eyes that were tinged with 
melancholy and a face of perfect and pitiful beauty, and she 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 39 

had under her arm a bundle of Yiddish newspapers, which she 
was peddling out at a penny apiece at 1 1 o'clock at night. When 

she was interrogated, she informed us that her name was L ; 

she went to school until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and then 
immediately, after getting a- crust of bread and a glass of tea, 
went out to sell papers. When asked how long she remained 
out, she said until all her papers were sold. And at 11 o'clock 
at night she had 25 yet undisposed of. We bought her papers 
and sent her home. I forgot to say that she informed us that 
her mother was with her, and that she was compelled to employ 
all her time not spent at school in selling newspapers in order 
to realize a few pennies to support the family. When she left, 
I turned to my companion and asked him: "Can you under- 
stand the inevitable fate that is in store for that poor girl?" 
And he sprang up with tears in his eyes, saying: "For God's 
sake let us do something to rescue her." I pulled him back, 
and I said that is an impulse which is always tugging at my 
heart when I come down here, — to devote myself to an indi- 
vidual case. It appeals to me because I see it before me. But 
that is not an isolated case. There are thousands like that in 
this district — thousands of children that are denied the most 
sacred privilege that God gives to every girl, to grow up to be a 
respectable woman, a respectable wife and a respectable mother. 
I am not unduly earnest when I speak to my friends, to my 
brethren in all parts of this country, that the care of that child's 
purity is no more my business because I live in the upper portion 
of Manhattan Island than it is the care of a Jew who lives in 
Oregon. It is my business — it always has been my business, 
whether I live in New York or elsewhere, and what I claim and 
what I preach as the gospel that animates my soul, is that it is 
your business, that it is the business of every Jew, if he is entitled 
to that honorable name. It is not to be left to those people to 
choose where they shall live. They are unable to form a fair 
judgment. They are no more qualified to form a fair judgment 
as to where they shall locate when they land as foreigners from 
Europe than are your children or my children to determine what 
is best for them. They must be guided, led until they are strong 



40 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

enough educationally to move for themselves. They must be j 
educated to a better understanding of the conditions that prevail 
in the interior of this country, of opportunities offered every- 
where for men able to work, to lift themselves and their fam- 
ilies. That is an educational campaign which is proceeding sys- 
tematically, tediously and painfully slow in the lower east side 
of New York. But there is something more needed than that ^ 
in order to ameliorate the conditions which obtain in the Ghetto 
and which are continually being augmented by the fact that the 
influx from Europe is greater than the efflux from New York. 
You understand this, who strive to aid those who will move out 
of the Ghetto. We must realize that not only are the numbers 
increasing, but the tone constantly being lowered. Is that any 
concern of yours? Is it less your concern than it is mine? — 
when I speak of mine I am speaking as a citizen of New York. 
I think not. I have asked that question, looking into the eyes 
of Jewish gatherings all over these United States, and I have 
never received but one answer: That just as truly as it is the 
business of the New York Jew, it is the business of the American 
Jew because it is not a local question. It is not at the invitation 
of New York they come there. It is not a matter of choice upon 
the part of New York that they land there. I will take that 
back and explain to you in a moment. But it is due to the fact 
that the steamship lines terminate at New York. I said I would 
take it back that it wasn't the choice of New York, because 
it has been the decision of the charitable Jews of New York ' 
that if this tide must come here, and must be handled by the 
American Jews, it must be dealt with as an American proposi- 
tion ; our energies will be weakened if they come at various 
sea ports rather than at one; it is better to have them at one 
place than to divide our forces all along the Atlantic seaboard. 
But I can say to you that if the Jews of New York had set 
themselves energetically to the task, we could offer inducements 
that would compel the immigration companies to divert the im- 
migration to Charleston, to Baltimore, to New Orleans, to Bos- 
ton, to any place on the American coast, and looked at from a 
purely financial standpoint, money could not be better invested. 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 41 

But they have never argued that feature, but, on the contrary, 
have always taken the position that if we must take care of them, 
it is better that they come where they can be handled scien- 
tifically, than to let them be landed on the seaboard indiscrim- 
inately and receive no particular attention. 

Now, in New York a great many charitable institutions exist 
and a very few charitable people. (Applause.) And we are 
handling problems which impel us to deal with them familiarly; 
t% smile when we hear of troubles that are related at a meeting 
like this— as obtaining in other communities. When we hear 
some one speak of these settlement districts in such and such 
a community, or something or another that is established in some 
other community, we can not help recalling that not only could 
we not say the settlement house, but those among us who are 
best informed do not know the location of the many settlement 
houses which we have in the city of New York and of the 
Jewish charitable institutions, so numerous are they; and yet 
so great are the problems that these many institutions scarcely 
make an impression. When I took a visitor through the Edu- 
cational Alliance building in New York, and told him the aver- 
age attendance there was 7,000 a day year in and year out, he 
was amazed, as almost any one unfamiliar with the situation 
would be, that it does not make a greater impression upon the 
tone and the civilization that obtain here, and the answer to it is : 
That if we had 20 institutions located at proper places in the 
lower east side of New York, each a duplicate of the Educational 
Alliance, each one would have a like daily attendance, so 
stupendous is that problem there. Now to get down to the 
practical question to which I wish to address myself; it is this: 
What is the solution, what are we going to do? Now, I want 
to avoid as much as possible speaking of any matter in which 
I must employ the personal pronoun I, which, if I had my way 
about it, would be blotted out of all vocabularies, but I am 
compelled by circumstances to say that when the Roumanian 
persecution drove the first installment of victims to the United 
States in the early part of the summer of 1900, the Independent 
Order of B'nai B'rith undertook to distribute them in different 



42 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

localities in the United States, and thereupon organized a move- 
ment in conjunction with philanthropic individuals and societies 
located in the city of New York, and up to the first day of 
February, 1901, had located in a most desultory and unscien- 
tific way somewhere between 1,600 and 2,000 people. Now, 
you must understand we had no machinery provided for han- 
dling such a problem. We had nobody who understood how 
to handle these people. We did not know whom to employ for 
that purpose, because there was no one who had had any expe- 
rience. The people living in the interior of the United States 
did not understand these people nor how to handle them, and, 
in the nature of things, mistakes were made and duplicated and 
multiplied over and over again, but out of all that turmoil and 
confusion and apparent chaos the fact remains that about 60 per 
cent, 60 to 66 per cent of those who were moved out were finally 
successfully located and became self-supporting in different parts 
of the United States. But quite a large percentage of those who 
went out did not stay in the places to which they were sent. They 
drifted. If they were sent within 300 or 400 or 500 miles of 
Chicago, they had a desire to see Chicago. Most everybody has. 
Or if they were anywhere near St. Louis, they wanted to go to 
St. Louis, and they wanted to go to Cincinnati in the same 
way. The large cities always attract these people, and there 
was what we called a drift. Somebody said this morning when 
a man gives $5 to this hospital and $5 to that asylum, and $50 
to another, every week, that at the end of the year he thinks he 
has given away a fortune. He is astonished when you sum up 
and find out how little his contribution is. Now I am glad that 
was mentioned, because I have found out that if in January 
two Roumanians drifted into St. Louis and besieged the relief 
committee there for aid, and in February one, and in March 
four, and in April another one or two, before the end of the 
year, it was firmly believed that all the Roumanians in the 
country were being dumped into St. Louis. (Laughter and 
applause.) 

When I was in Chicago last March, I was told by the man- 
ager of the United Hebrew Charities there that 400 Roumanian 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 43 

V refugees who were sent out by the New York Committee had 
drifted into Chicago, and I said, ''Won't you feel more com- 
fortable if you reduce that?" and he said, "Well, to be certain 

j 1 would reduce it to 300." Afterwards, through the courtesy of 
Mr. Senior, President of this organization, I saw the figures, 
the names of the men tabulated. I do not undertake to be 
exact, but I am safe in saying that the number that were sent 
there was under 70, and of that list of 70, we could only check 
out about 45. There were fewer than 50 who really were sent 
by the Committee in New York to various parts of the west and 
who drifted to Chicago. Well, the same was true in Baltimore, 
and the same was true in Cincinnati, and the same was true 
everywhere else. In fact, when you tabulate the drift of Rou- 
manians that were sent out, we discover that by some miraculous 
process these Roumanian refugees had been able to multiply 
themselves. Well, our figures showed 60 per cent remained 
where they were, and the other 40 per cent had multiplied them- 
selves into 200 per cent of the whole number. I refer to that 
because it presents a grave practical problem. What are you 
going to do about it? After experiences which we profited by, 
we reorganized our affairs and our statistics from the first of 
February will show that in our removal work 80 per cent of 
those who were sent out remained where we had sent them and 
are self-sustaining and prosperous. We sent out the heads of 
families. Remember, we never sent anybody to any community 
without the consent of that community. That is an inflexible 
rule, but when the head of a family who has gone forth as the 
pioneer, can get a certificate from the local charitable organiza- 
tion or from the B'nai B'rith Lodge, if there be one, or any other 
lodge, that he is able to take care of his family, his family is 
sent to him. Those are what we call reunion cases. And our 
reunion record confirms beyond any peradventure, the absolute 
success of this movement. Now, when that movement had been 
demonstrated as a success, it was suggested that possibly in 
removal work we could solve the Ghetto problem. We could give 
the children of those people, herded like cattle, the opportunity 
to breathe fresh air, to get proper surroundings and proper 



44 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

educational facilities, to take their places in the rank of Ameri- 1 
can boys and American girls and become worthy American 
citizens; we urged them to take advantage of the different por- 
tions of the United States, and there we had, as we have now, 
untold obstacles to overcome; and we have gone forth to make 
a propaganda among the Jews, to impress upon them the duty, 
nay, more than that, the privilege of taking part in this great 
historical movement. Stamp your individuality upon it so that 
your children and children's children may say that there was a 
time when the exodus was repeated, when the exodus from 
Spain was repeated, when the Jews moved from Southeastern 
Europe to the United States, and my father or my grandfather 
was one of the active spirits in that movement, opening his arms 
to those refugees, furnishing them with the beginnings of a 
career and enabling their children to become worthy citizens, 
whose descendants are now the leaders of Jewish life in the 
United States. Can you appreciate that? Let me tell you some- 
thing which brought it to my mind more forcibly: At an early 
stage of the movement I instructed my secretary to take an 
ordinary railroad folder, a map of the United States, and mark 
with a blue pencil the points to which the Roumanian refugees 
had been sent, so that he might have it as a guide for the work, 
and I mentioned it casually one day to the Superintendent of 
the Educational Alliance, a Russian, Dr. Blaustein, and he said, 
"Let me have that. That little worthless railroad folder will 
become of priceless value when the Roumanian has become a 
fixed fact in American civilization. It will be a precious souve- 
nir to their descendants to show how they were first introduced 
into the interior of the United States and where they first lo- 
cated." Now, I do not appreciate his enthusiasm about the 
historical value of that little map, but I do say, without respect 
to any special feature of the work, that the work itself is of 
great historical significance ; it appeals to your emotion ; it should 
appeal to your judgment, and if it does not, it is not the fault of 
the situation, it is your fault. It would indicate to my mind, 
and I think it would to the mind of any one of you who is capable 
of passing upon the subject, that you engaged in charity work 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 45 

which you are doing for pleasure. Now, there is a great deal 
of pleasure in charity work. There is a delightful emotion when 
we do somebody a kindness, and I have observed in myself and 
in others, too, that we always like to do a kindness to some- 
body who needs it least. I know when I go down into the 
Ghetto and I see a group of children, my inclination is to do 
something for the prettiest child in the group. If you find in a 
group of men one that looks the most respectable, who is the best 
dressed, who appeals to you because he has an intelligent face, 
he is the man that is most likely to arouse your first impulse 
to aid, but if he is uncomely, if he is untidy and malodorous, 
why, you turn from him with loathing and disgust; and yet if 
you are animated by the true spirit of charity, you ought to 
reflect that the one from whom you turn in loathing and dis- 
gust is the one that is most entitled to your assistance. The 
other man can get along himself. (Applause.) To do true 
charity work is to make sacrifice. What values it to sit down in 
your comfortable office and write a check and flutter it out, to 
avoid coming in contact with those cases because it may soil 
your gloves; to deal with them with tongs, to write magazine 
theses on charity work — beautiful specimens of literature such 
as I have heard and seen time and time again, and possessing 
great merit? It endures forever, because it is not subjected to 
wear and tear. But if you want to do effective charity work 
you must soil your hands. You must come into contact with 
things that are loathsome and repulsive, and feel you are giving 
of your own comfort and happiness in order to secure comfort 
and well-being to others. I have always said it is no holiday 
business. It is not a holiday jaunt. It means trouble. It 
means a tax on your patience. It means you are going to be 
betrayed. It means you are going to be the subject of ingrati- 
tude and treachery and a thousand other things that will make 
you recoil because you must not expect these people to be 
perfect specimens of humanity. Why should you? Are those 
who have lived with you in your own community, are they per- 
fect, are they all sensible, are they all truthful, are they all up- 
right, are they all courteous, are they all loyal? and you will 



46 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

answer no, a thousand times no, and if that be true of the aver- \ 
age of any community, how should you expect these poor, 
persecuted refugees who come over here should measure up to a 
loftier standard than that which you apply to your own people? 
Now I want you to reflect on that because that is of great 
weight, not because it comes from me, but because it will help . 
you in your work. You will observe, in dealing with the pre- 
judices of our Gentile friends towards the Jews, they always'- 
insist upon comparing the average Jew with the best Christian. 
And, of course, that is manifestly unfair. And the American 
Jew compares the Russian and Roumanian Jew with the best 
American Jew. But if you compare averages, I think you will • 
find the scale will not tip much one way or the other. (Ap- 
plause.) I heard this morning a question put to one of the 
distinguished delegates of this conference : How can we bridge 
the chasm between the Russian and the German Jew ? How I 
can we get rid of the prejudices which exist on both sides ? And 
I was delighted when I heard the interrogation coupled with 
the statement of the prejudices which exist on both sides, and 
I was pained to hear a reply made which would indicate that 
the prejudice only existed on one side, and that it was well 
grounded. I have had to deal with that problem and to study 
it, and I have found that the closer I got into it, the nearer I 
got to the fact that the prejudices on the part of the Russian 
Jew towards the American and the German Jew are absolutely 
well founded from his viewpoint. And that the prejudice of the 
American and the German Jew against the Russian and the 
Galician and the Roumanian Jew is absolutely well founded from 
the viewpoint of the American and the German Jew. But I 
have always found that both viewpoints are wrong, and that if T J 
those who settle the question will take a broad view of it, will 
separate themselves from prejudices, and look at the underlying 
facts, they will find there is a misunderstanding which should be ' 
removed ; that the Russian should not be driven to the loss of 
self-respect by the arrogant assumption of superiority on the 
part of the German or the American Jew. Right there is per- ' 
haps the main root of the evil. These people will not tell you 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 47 

so to your face, but they understand your arrogance, and they 
will have nothing to do with you as long as you assume to 
patronize them from the standpoint of superiority. They do 
not recognize your superiority, and I do not blame them. On 
the other hand, they do not participate in our charities to the 
extent you think they ought, and you censure them. I think 
they ought to participate more than they do. I think that also 
of the American and the German Jew. I want to make this ob- 
servation as applicable to New York — I do not know whether it 
applies to St. Louis. I will say it is applicable to New York, and 
I will call your attention to the proof of the truth of it. The 
Jewish population of New York may be divided into three parts 
Russian and the allied races to one part of the American and 
the German Jew. That is to say, 350,000 to 120,000, or in that 
proportion, three to one. And I will say this, that of the 350,000 
or 300,000 of Russian, Galician and Roumanian Jews in New 
York, there are fewer who are able to contribute to organized 
charities, yet do not, than there are among the 120,000 German 
and American Jews who are able to do it and do not. I know 
that between 5,000 and 6,000 names is the largest we can muster 
as contributors to organized charities in the great city of New 
York. How is it with other large cities? Take the lists and 
compare them with the lists of the American and German Jews, 
and ask yourself whether it is not proper to sweep a little before 
our own doors before we comment upon the accumulated dirt 
before the doors of our neighbors. We must deal with this 
question in a catholic spirit. We must remember a man can 
not get to the top unless he climbs from the bottom. We must 
remember those who came to this country 50 years ago had to 
climb from the bottom to the top, and we ought to be manly 
enough to know there is nothing more cowardly and disgrace- 
ful than to climb to the top of a wall by a ladder and then kick 
the ladder away so that nobody can climb up afterwards. (Ap- 
plause.) Now, in a great many of the communities great work 
has been done. One of those who addressed you a few minutes 
ago, a representative from Pittsburg, himself a Roumanian, has 
successfully taken hold of the work in Pittsburg under the lead- 



48 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

ership of Mr. Rosenbaum, the President of the B'nai B'rfth 
district No. 3, of which Philadelphia is the capital city, who is 
here, and I hope he will have occasion to tell you from the stand- 
point of the American native Jew something about co-operation 
in this work of establishing refugees in different parts of the 
country. We have other friends who have done so. But we 
have some natives to deal with that are as ignorant, apparently, 
as the most benighted Jew that ever lived in Southeastern Eu- 
rope, whose horizon is the limited local community; who do not 
understand that beyond the hilltops which limit their view there 
are other people ; who can be uplifted to a realization of the fact 
that the Jewish question is a question pertaining to all the Jews ; 
that the concern of all the Jews is the concern of each Jew, and 
the concern of each Jew is the concern of all Jews. They will tell 
you, whenever a propaganda is sought to be made among them, 
that they have their local troubles, and as soon as they do their 
part with those who are immediately with them, they perform 
their full duty, and I say they do not know what trouble is. I 
called the attention of my friends from New York before we 
left New York to this: When you come out to Detroit and 
meet the representatives from the west and south and listen to 
the recital of their so-called troubles, you will find they have no 
trouble. It reminds me, when I heard the recital from Kansas 
City this morning, of the bright side work in a certain Sabbath 
School where some young teacher conceived the idea of putting 
herself in communication with the managers of the hospitals of 
New York to ascertain the wants of patients and on Sunday 
morning she came before the assembled children and -she said: 
"Here is a little child with curvature of the spine ; she broke 
her doll the other day and she wants a new doll with blue eyes 
and black hair — now who will furnish that?" And immediately 
there was an array of little hands raised up. Every little girl 
in the Sunday school wanted to furnish that doll. Well, there 
is a little boy in another hospital who wants a ball. And there, 
again, the little hands go, and everybody wants to furnish the 
ball. Of course, only one can do so; and it seems as if the rest 
did not meet with the favor of the teacher, and their eyes filled 



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 49 

with tears, and they go home very much disappointed, because 
there was not enough trouble to go around. Now, let me say 
to you, my friends, in the communities where there is not enough 
trouble to go around, it is your duty to hold up your hands like 
those children, and to clamor for your share. And there is plenty 
of it to go around if it is properly distributed. And the work 
that I and my friends are engaged in is to bring about a proper 
distribution that you shall understand that that condition which 
prevails there in New York is not our problem. It is your prob- 
lem. It is the problem of all of us. It is your burden as it is 
our burden; and that you can not get rid of your responsibility 
simply because you do not see it, or because you live a thousand 
miles away from it. Be manly and womanly, and face the situa- 
tion, and when you realize your duty either you will perform 
it, or not perform it, but do not indulge in sophistries and fal- 
lacies, and say it is no concern of yours. Now, I do* not want 
to be invidious ; I do not want to mention names, but I do wish 
to say there are communities in these United States that have 
insisted repeatedly that we of New York are trying to unload 
our troubles on other communities, and that they were not going 
to be used as a dumping-ground for the poverty-stricken Jews 
of New York. Now, let me tell you how much proof there is 
to any such accusation. I have already told you they are com- 
ing to New York at the rate of 50,000 a year. Our scheme of 
removal involves the removing of 2,400 a year, so you can see 
how much disposed we are to unload our burden upon the coun- 
try. We are very much concerned in not creating a congestion 
elsewhere. We are very much concerned in properly distribut- 
ing these people; we are very much concerned in looking after 
their welfare after they go beyond the confines of New York, 
so much so that we will never send to any community without 
its consent, and we are not urging communities to take more than 
they can properly care for. On the contrary, time and time 
again, when small towns have said we will take care of ten, or 
any particular number, our experience shows and we have told 
them you can not stand up under such a burden as that. Take 
a smaller number first. Our problem is an old problem. We 



50 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

think we are broad enough to grasp it; we are trying to teach 
the breadth and depth of that problem to the Jews in other parts 
of the United States, and it is unfair to themselves and to us to 
belittle it with a discussion of little details — the consideration of 
little trifles and little mistakes made in the movement. Mistakes, 
of course! You could not conduct a big business without mak- 
ing mistakes. You could not conduct a great enterprise like 
this without mistakes. And when you reflect that the people 
who are engaged in this work are without the hope of any kind 
of reward, you ought not to be unforgiving towards their errors, 
even though you be infallible yourself. (Long continued ap- 
plause.) 



UNION AMONG JEWS. 

Oration delivered by Brother Leo N. Levi, President of 
Executive Committee, I. O. B. B., at the celebration of the fiftieth 
anniversary of District Grand Lodge No. I, I. O. B. B., Sunday, 
March 8th, 1903, at Temple Beth-el. 

Brethren and Friends: 

The celebration in which we are engaged is not merely a 
festive occasion. We are not assembled chiefly for pleasurable 
entertainment. We have been called together to review what we 
have done and have left undone; to take an account of what 
we are doing and leaving undone and to make a budget, as it 
were, of what the future holds for us to do. In such delibera- 
tions we hold no secret conclaves. We present our history with 
all its successes and its failure to the public; and along with it 
we set forth the scope and plan of our future activities. It is an 
appropriate time to reconsider first principles, however well they 
may seem to be settled ; to answer any challenge which the world 
can make to us, and in tuYn to issue our own challenge to the 
world. 

One of the features of this jubilee is a history of District 
No. 1, prepared by brethren identified with it from the beginning, 
and who can acquaint us from their own recollections with the 
spirit in which the District was formed. I shall not enter the 
field which they have so well covered, except to pluck here and 
there a sheaf from the harvests they have gathered. 

From that history we learn that after the Independent Order 
of B'nai B'rith had been in successful existence for some years, 
it was found expedient, for purposes of practical administration, 
to create territorial districts in which it might operate with a 
due regard to local considerations. The First and Second Dis- 
tricts were simultaneously established in 185 1. Since then five 
other districts in the United States and three in Europe have 

51 



$2 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

been established. None which was created has ceased to exist. 
While the first and second districts were officially born at the 
same time, District No. I has always been looked upon as the 
Mother District. The Order had its genesis and first growth 
in the City of New York. Thence it spread to the various Jewish 
communities in the United States and Canada. When it covered 
so large a territory that government could not be effectively 
administered from New York, the first subdivision took place 
and District No. i assumed the same relation to the rest 
of the country that Virginia bore to the states which were 
carved out of her vast domain. 

When in the course of time the present Constitution was 
adopted for the Order at large, it was modeled after the organic 
law of the United States, the Districts being the analogue of 
the States, and the Constitution Grand Lodge represented by its 
Executive Committee, being the analogue of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. The seat of the Constitution Grand Lodge has always 
been in New York City, where the Order had its birth. The 
first President of the Executive Committee was chosen from 
District No. I, and he continued to serve until his years and 
physical infirmities compelled him to resign the burdens of his 
office. Even then, the Order was unwilling to part with his 
services. An office was created in which, like another Nestor, he 
could enrich our councils with his wisdom. 

Without adducing further testimony, I shall ask you to con- 
clude with me, that the relations between District No. i and the 
entire Order have been so interwoven that it is impossible to 
speak of the one without the other. This celebration, therefore, 
while in a sense local to this District, is in a broader sense a 
celebration of and by the Order. This District has been the 
pioneer in the great movements which, for good and for evil, 
have marked the history of our organization. It does not claim 
unmerited honors or shrink from grave responsibilities. Those 
who have formed its rank and file for fifty years and more have 
labored earnestly in a great cause. They have won many vic- 
tories and suffered some defeats. They are not more proud of 
the former than sorrowful for the latter. What they have done 



UNION AMONG JEWS. 53 

and what they have left undone is all set down, to be read by 
those who follow them. They do not demand praise or resent 
criticism, but they ask that criticism shall be constructive and 
not destructive ; that it shall be offered in order to build up and 
not to tear down. This at least is their due, unless, indeed, they 
have builded from the beginning on a false foundation or have 
unwisely continued the organization after the reason for its ex- 
istence had ceased. To these considerations we may address 
ourselves with profit to-day, as if the world had challenged us 
again to justify the establishment of our organization when it 
was formed, or its continued existence. 

Shortly before the middle of the nineteenth century, the 
Jewish cdony in the City of New York had grown to consider- 
able proportions, but it lacked cohesion. It was composed of 
elements which, if not altogether discordant, were at least not 
homogenous. It embraced the Sephardim or Portuguese Jews 
who held themselves aloof from and superior to all others; 
English Jews who were insular in their ideas; German Jews 
who resented the arrogance of the Sephardim, but who them- 
selves arrogated superiority over the Poles, and lastly, the Polish 
Jews, who sneered at the assumptions of the Portuguese, Eng- 
lish and German Jews. It embraced some men of culture in the 
broadest sense, others of great scholarship in a limited and 
Jewish sense only, and still a greater number of the ignorant 
and unrefined. In the colony were some who were animated 
by a lofty but liberal religious spirit, others who were fanatically 
pious, and still others who were in every way irreligious. These 
are but some of the differences which operated against harmon- 
ious co-operation. Small groups were formed, based in each 
instance upon something common to the members thereof, and 
these groups were jealous of and in a measure hostile towards 
one another. Despite these differences, each Jew was at some 
time or another reminded that over and above them existed the 
community of sentiment and interest which inevitably obtains 
among all classes of Jews. The Jews are and ever have been 
a peculiar people. If they ever forget it for a moment, the world 
rudely reminds them of it. Men may differ as to the underlying 



54 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

causes, but not as to the fact itself. It may be because God chose 
the Jews as a Nation of Priests; it may be because they are 
narrow minded and arrogant; it may be because the world 
hates and persecutes them ; at all events they are and ever have 
been a distinct portion of the human family. This fact may 
be unfortunate, deplorable and even blame-worthy, but it is a 
fact. If it be desirable to overcome it, the method has not yet 
been discovered. The Jews will not surrender their religion, 
and so long as they cling to it, they must face a hostile world. 

This hostility takes little, if any, account of individuals. It 
is directed not alone against the ignorant, the degraded, the 
fanatical, the uncultured and the avaricious; it does not except 
the educated, the lofty, the liberal, the refined and the philan- 
thropic. It disregards all these distinctions and makes of all 
Jews one target. At Jimes in some countries this hostility slum- 
bers and apparently dies, but it is never universally quiescent. It 
is always to be found somewhere, and wherever it has seemingly 
been allayed, there has from time to time been a recrudescence. 
From some quarter at all times, and from all quarters at some 
times, it arises like an engulfing flood. And so through the bit- 
ter centuries the Jews have learned the fraternity which com«?s 
from a common peril. 

Each Jew carries the burden imposed upon him by the un- 
friendliness of the world at large. The superior Jew staggers 
under an additional load. He carries the infirmities of his inferior 
brethren. He must be not only thrice better than a Gentile to be 
as good, he must also uplift all other Jews lest they drag him 
down. If he be learned he must impart his learning to the igno- 
rant; if he be strong he must uphold the weak; if he be rich 
he must aid the poor ; if he be brave he must inspirit the timid. 
Each is responsible for all and all for each. It is a terrible handi- 
cap, perhaps a grossly unjust one, but in the race of life it has 
been so established and so it remains. It may be a blessing rather 
than a curse. Perhaps to the necessities which beset the Jew 
are due his best qualities. 

Until the nineteenth century the Jewish religion was alone 
sufficient to insure among Jews in particular localities, cohesion 



UNION AMONG JEWS. 55 

and harmony. Beyond these localities such cohesion and har- 
mony were not deemed necessary, nor were they feasible. Com- 
munication and travel were so difficult that anything beyond 
local organization was not to be considered. With the nineteenth 
century, two new factors of * controlling importance entered into 
the history of the Jews. 

The steam engine and the telegraph wire brought the Jews of 
different countries into close touch. They were no longer stran- 
gers. The Jewish community which in former generations did 
not extend beyond the confines of a city or a province, widened 
out so as to embrace continents. The other new factor was the 
birth of what has come to be called Reformed Judaism. When 
the Rabbis began to dispute with acrimony about Judaism, the 
laymen threw off the controlling influence not only of the Rabbis, 
but of Judaism also. Over night, as it were, it was found that 
the Jews of the world formed a single community, and that the 
traditional bond which united them was being cut, untied or 
worn away. 

In New York City, at the period to which I refer, these fac- 
tors were most strongly in evidence. Facilities of travel had 
brought here Jews from all parts of the world. They brought 
with them different customs, habits of thought, phases of religious 
belief, intellectual acquirements and inherited prejudices. Each 
group sought to dominate the others, controversies arose, and 
not only disintegration but destruction was threatened. But 
above the din and confusion arose one clear note that has sounded 
throughout the ages. "Though some of you be rich and others 
poor, some intelligent and others ignorant, some refined and 
others uncultivated, some pious and others irreligious, some nig- 
gard and others generous; though ye speak different tongues, 
worship according to different rituals and have different habits, 
yet have ye a common ancestry, a common religion, a common 
history, a common peril and a common destiny, for ye are all 
Jews." 

Upon this community it was possible — nay necessary to 
build.— 

The dead must be buried, the sick nursed, the poor aided, 



56 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

the widow comforted, the orphan reared, the ignorant educated, 
the debased uplifted, the weak protected, and the welfare of all 
safeguarded from the assaults to which then, as always, it was 
subject. Therefore wisdom dictated that all points of cleavage 
be eliminated and an effective union* established upon a platform 
acceptable to all. Towards this end leading minds groped at 
first and later advanced with rapid strides. Great institutions are 
not created ; they grow. 

A few men organized on the lines just indicated. They 
themselves did not grasp the importance of their work. They 
builded better than they knew. In the first Constitution of the 
Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, the central thought was that 
of a Union of the Sons of the Covenant. All other ideas were 
to be subordinated to the importance of Union. Its scope was 
limited to this country, and its main purpose as stated,. to secure 
"a dignified representation of the Israelites of America in a re- 
ligious and social point of view and the elevation of the masses 
in a moral and intellectual direction." 

The first Constitution discloses that its authors were not alto- 
gether at home in the English language and that their thoughts 
had not yet been clarified by experience and discussion. But it 
is manifest that they had a great ideal and that they succeeded in 
communicating it to others. The success of the organization 
was pronounced and immediate. 

It was the first effort in the history of the Jews to organize 
them as such, on lines not exclusively religious or local. In its 
success the Jews discovered themselves in a new light. They 
found that their weakness could be changed into strength and 
that the best elements among them could be employed to improve 
the tone of the worst. 

After the lapse of some years experience suggested many 
improvements in administrative methods, and a clearer, broader 
and more definite declaration of principles. The present Consti- 
tution was the result. Its author, Julius Bien, the present Chan- 
cellor of Foreign Affairs, grasped and expressed the genius of the 
Order. What was originally a nebulous union of only local im- 
portance, he made a well defined organization to operate through- 



UNION AMONG JEWS. 57 

out the world. The preamble cannot be too often repeated. As a 
declaration of principles it is comprehensively perfect. 

"The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith has taken upon itself 
the mission of uniting Israelites in the work of promoting their 
highest interests and those of humanity ; of developing, elevating 
and defending the mental and moral character of our race, of 
inculcating the purest principles of philanthropy, honor and pa- 
triotism; of supporting science and art; alleviating the wants of 
the poor and needy; visiting and attending the sick; coming to 
the rescue of victims of persecution; providing for, protecting 
and assisting the widow and orphan on the broadest principles of 
humanity." 

That the union of Jews on this platform was justified, desir- 
able and even necessary, requires no further argument, except to 
those who in some shadowy way, oppose all distinctions among 
men on account of religion, race, color or nationality. With such, 
discussion is futile. They are wedded to the conviction that there 
should be no organizations which recognize any distinctions what- 
soever. To them even patriotism, if they be logical, is narrow and 
inhumane. They believe that the brotherhood of man makes a 
brotherhood of Jews indefensible, forgetful that the same faith 
would place a blood brother on an equality with an utter stranger. 
If, however, the wisdom of forming this Union requires evidence, 
as well as argument to support it, that evidence is supplied by 
the history of our Order and of this District. Read that history 
and learn of the results accomplished in works of benevolence, 
local, national and international. Read of our Home for the 
Aged — of our Maimonides Free Library — of our Benevolent 
Funds — of our aid in the erection and conduct of eleemosynary 
institutions — of our efforts in the cause of education — of our 
share in securing treaty rights for our oppressed co-religionists 
in Roumania — of our part in the Centennial celebration of the 
nation, and many other potent expressions of our activity. But 
far greater than these achievements has been the influence ex- 
erted in the lodge room by those whose good influence was 
needed by others. Our organization has brought into contact 
those who were able to help, and those who needed help. It 



58 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

brought about association and affiliation under circumstances 
which repressed the evil and exalted the good in human nature. 

Unceasingly it has made for the good and spiritual and has 
made against the sordid and material. It served to develop in- 
telligence and character and aided in the discovery of trustworthy 
leaders. To those qualified to lead it has offered a following and 
an opportunity. No one who reads our history can resist the 
conclusion that but for our organization the status of the Jew 
would in all respects, be lower than it is. 

In claiming so much, we are not unmindful of the errors that 
we have made. It is frankly admitted that we have not always 
pursued the wisest course. Most notable among these errors 
was the endowment plan, under which life insurance benefits 
were provided for members. This plan proved unwise in two 
aspects. In the first place it was faulty as a financial measure, 
and secondly it was a departure from the true purpose of the 
association. It undoubtedly distracted the attention of the mem- 
bers and estranged many desirable persons whose affiliation 
would have been otherwise secured. It is easier to confess the 
error, because we have survived and corrected it. After many 
years of painful effort, and more painful endurance, we are emerg- 
ing from an evil which well nigh worked our destruction. Noth- 
ing could better evidence the real merit and vitality of our Organ- 
ization, than its survival of the Endowment folly. Happily we 
may speak of it as a disease which has spent its course and from 
which we are convalescent. 

It remains to answer the challenge to our continued exist- 
ence. It has been urged that conditions have so altered since 
our birth, that we have no warrant to persevere. This superficial 
criticism has lost even its apparent force during the past few 
years. But a short while back and especially in New York, it 
was said that our charities are being satisfactorily conducted 
by separate societies having special aims; "our community is so 
large that groups are necessary and any comprehensive union 
undesirable; anti-semitism is dying out; the American Jew has 
no problems except such as are local ; the influence of the lodge- 
room is no longer required or beneficial — in short, there is noth- 



UNION AMONG JEWS. 59 

ing to be done, your mission is ended and you should pass out of 
existence." Since then the Dreyfus agitation in France has dem- 
onstrated that anti-semitism is likely to break out at any time and 
place and that when it finds the Jews without organization their 
plight is pitiful indeed. Since then the refugees from Russia, 
Galicia and Roumania have raised the Jewish question to com- 
manding importance. Since then it has dawned on the world 
that we are witnessing another exodus which promises to soon 
change the habitat of the Jews to the Western Hemisphere. 
Since then we have come to understand that in New York City 
there have come and remained more Jews than have been together 
at any one time and place, since the destruction of Jerusalem. 
Since then we have seen disasters working ruin to whole com- 
munities of Jews. Since then we have found it necessary to fight 
persecution in Europe and to relieve its victims here. Since then 
we have been busy finding homes throughout the world for Jews 
driven from Eastern Europe. Since then we are beset by an in- 
crease of the poor, of the widowed, of the orphaned and of the 
sick — and here in New York especially we have learned that these 
are not problems of merely local concern. The conditions which 
have congested the Jewish population of New York, and the con- 
ditions resulting therefrom, touch the life, happiness and destiny 
of the Jews throughout the world. The tragedy of the Jew is 
again to the fore, and he must realize that, under the favor of 
Heaven, he must rely upon himself to avert or ameliorate its hor- 
rors. To do this, individuals or isolated groups are powerless. 
There must be co-operation among all Jews. In short, to be 
strong we must be united. 

When crises arise it is too late to organize. Organization 
must be prepared in advance. No one has ever claimed perfec- 
tion for our Order as an agency for solving practical problems, 
but at all events it has come to be recognized as the best we have. 
It was the first widespread Jewish organization ; it has endured ; 
it has noble traditions and a great history ; it is established 
throughout the world ; it was and is available. Hence the critics 
were silenced ; the rusty hinges were oiled ; the broken places re- 
paired, and the machinery so long inactive, because not in de- 



60 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

mand, began the task which, except by organized effort, was 
unsurmountable. 

Let facts — facts yet so fresh that they have scarcely become 
history — seal the warrant for our existence. How fairly they 
stand forth to witness for us. The list is too long to be fully 
told. A few must suffice. Let the hundreds of Jewish families 
who were given a new start in life after the Galveston flood tes- 
tify for us. Call the many thousand Roumanian Refugees who 
have been established in this blessed land, to give testimony. 
Let the protest of our Government against the persecution of the 
Jews in Europe be read in evidence. Let the awakening among 
our brethren in the so-called "Ghetto" silence the last doubt. 

But, say the critics, if your achievements be recognized and 
your purposes appreciated, yet must you be condemned as a secret 
body, indulging in the nonsense of a ritual of ceremony. Good 
purposes shun not the light of day and symbols are relics of a 
barbarous age. So long as these are retained the best exemplars 
of the Jews will not join your Union. 

To these a simple answer is at hand. Our organization is 
not a union of men already perfect. It is not an end itself, but 
only the means to an end. It seeks rather than expresses the 
ideal. It is a practical device to make men better, not a mere 
agency for exhibiting men who are in need of no improvement. 
It is not an aristocracy of brains or virtue. It is essentially dem- 
ocratic. It unites all classes to the end that the good may improve 
the evil and the best the good. Being so designed, it cannot be 
fashioned or conducted to suit the views of the few. It must be 
adapted to its purposes and to its constituents. Those who moth- 
ered and nursed it, took counsel from the pages of history. They 
learned that laws, regulations and customs, sacred or profane, 
if made for those only who stand least in need thereof, will ut- 
terly fail to reach those who most require them. They knew 
that the complete code contained in the Decalogue would have 
been cold, meaningless and ineffective, if it had not been fused 
into the very life of Israel by the fire of religious ceremonies. 
They remembered that when the early Christians builded up a 
great religion upon the martyrdom of a Jew, they made it learn- 



UNION AMONG JEWS. 6l 

able to the heathen, by incorporating even heathen observances 
into those of the church. 

The theory of government, of religion and of moral education 
is simple, but to make them practically vital, the dreamer in the 
study must become a student of men, as well as of ideas. Even 
if it be conceded that as the world advances, the charm of mys- 
tery and of symbols will cease, we are yet far from that day. The 
strongest organizations today are those which recognize this 
charm, and if we reflect deeply, we must recognize that all men 
and all nations are within its influence. When Victoria died, Ed- 
ward became King of England and Emperor of India by lawful 
succession. Nothing was required to make his titles good in law 
or fact; yet from all quarters of the globe the richest and wisest 
streamed to participate in or witness the pageant of his Corona- 
tion as King and the solemn proclamation of his accession as 
Emperor. Men may smile or sneer at such ceremonies as absurd, 
but no practical man of affairs can ignore their importance, so 
long as they have a hold upon the masses. While we seek to 
make men wiser and better, we must deal with them as they are. 
If we refuse to do so, we shall enjoy no opportunities to influ- 
ence them at all. 

And now, when we have answered those who challenge us, 
what can they say to the challenge we make to them ? 

The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith is the first and only 
organization of Jews, extending throughout the world, and de- 
signed to unite all Jews for the purposes set forth in its preamble. 
It has passed the experimental stage. It has proved that such 
a union is a necessity. It has no rival. Its failure would be a 
calamity ; its success has been and is a blessing. It stands full of 
courage and hope, confronting vast problems that only union and 
organization can grapple with. 

Five million Jews in Europe are suffering from poverty and 
the denial of equal rights. A million Jews in this country and 
the tremendous annual accessions to their numbers must be 
guided and welded into an ultimate civilization which shall be 
alike adorned by patriotism and the traditional virtues of Israel. 
The poor, the widows, the orphans, the sick, the ignorant and 



62 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

the downtrodden, must be looked after, congested districts must 
be relieved, homes established, evil tendencies checked, virtues 
implanted and fostered. In a word, never has the need been 
greater to carry the extra weight which now, as ever, is placed 
upon the Jew. Ours is an army, organized to war upon sorrow, 
ignorance and immorality. The recruits are offered no glittering 
rewards. It is a service of love, duty and sacrifice. The offer 
we extend is not so much of privilege as responsibility ; not so 
much of reward as burden. Who feels the blood of his ancestors 
beat in harmony with Jewish traditions, who hears in the cry of 
sorrow the call to sacrifice, who feels the thrall of duty and can 
find exaltation in the humility of self-effacement; who is not 
ready to surrender his birthright, rather than defend it ; who has 
within him the Jewish spirit which has tired Time and Torture, let 
him enlist. Here especially is it needful that our ranks should 
grow. Here, and in the near future, will be the storm center of 
the Jewish question. 

Like a mighty torrent, events are rushing upon us. We 
must battle with disease, poverty, immorality, ignorance, crime 
and debasement. The prospect is truly appalling. But God 
helps those who help themselves. If we bear up bravely, if we 
increase the helpers, we shall speedily reduce the number of those 
who need help. If we meet problems, instead of flying from 
them, we shall master them. Prudence, wisdom, duty — all di- 
rect our course. As in all ages, the multitude will hang back, but 
now as in all ages there will be those who vindicate man as the 
image of his Maker. 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 

FBOM JHE 

STANDPOINT OF A LAYMAN. 

Address of Leo N. Levi, Esq., delivered at the Council of 
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, in New Orleans, De- 
cember 4, 1894. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : — Had I consulted my personal 
and private interests only, I should have declined to address you 
i on this occasion. Even the honor I now enjoy, than which I es- 
teem none higher, could not have tempted me to make the sacri- 
i fices which my presence involves. 

One consideration alone impelled me to set aside personal in- 
terests and to accept the invitation extended by your president. 

I recognized then as I do now, that here would be convened 
a body which represents Judaism and the Jews of America. To 
those Jews and concerning that Judaism, I have a message which, 
humble and modest as it is, I believed and believe it my duty to 
deliver. To you as the agents and envoys of your constituents, I 
shall entrust it, in the hope that when it shall have reached its des- 
tination it will at least quicken thought upon a subject of the 
gravest moment. 

When I reflect upon the purposes of this organization and the 
effective and enduring character of its work I am impressed with 
the propriety of discussing in its councils whatever touches nearly 
the destiny of our ancient religion. You who have busied your- 
selves with equipping teachers in Israel, will not deem it beyond 
your province to consider, what is being and what should be 
taught to and by those teachers. 

From every Jewish pulpit we are wont to hear our shortcom- 
ings and sins inquired into and condemned. Our want of piety 
and virtue is rebuked and we are asked by our spiritual advisers 

6.3 



64 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

to make our practices consistent with the faith we profess. From 
their exalted positions the Rabbis in turn lead and drive us, with 
appeals and denunciations, and we hearken and heed or remain 
obdurate, as the case may be, with never an opportunity to say 
one word by way of rejoinder. 

Today, from this rostrum, in the presence of and in the name 
of the laymen of our faith, I venture for once to "talk back." 

As children we were taught a simple faith from a simple cat- 
echism, prepared by those charged with the duty of studying, 
knowing and expounding the religion of our fathers. The edu- 
cation bestowed upon us by our progenitors we in turn must be- 
stow upon our descendants. We cannot escape the obligation if 
we would, we would not if we could. Neither can we escape the 
obligation to be honest with our children, and to require their 
teachers to be honest with us. It is our duty as it is our privilege 
when we have reached man's estate, to catechise those who have 
catechised us and who will catechise our children. We are en- 
titled to know what we are asked to believe and why. We are en- 
titled to know what our teachers believe and why, and 
when we ask we are entitled to replies that even our children can 
comprehend, instead of answers that not even we can understand. 

When the mocking heathen came to Shammai with his sneer- 
ing question the irascible sage smote him for his effrontery, but 
even to him the gentle Hillel found it proper to teach our faith. If 
the mocker could move the great teacher to expound the law to 
his comprehension, shall we hesitate to ask with reverence for 
light? If this were an open question the answer would be ready 
and plain, but unfortunately precedents prove that our rights in 
this respect are not admitted. If we seek for light we are deemed 
presumptuous, and, figuratively at least, meet too often the fate 
which the heathen experienced at the hands of Shammai. 

Not the least, if not the most, remarkable feature in the intel- 
lectual development of the nineteenth century, is the disposition 
to set aside everything that is ancient in order to make room for 
something that is modern. So prevalent is this disposition that 
even in mechanical arts and sciences, in which fundamental prin- 
ciples have been tested until their correctness can no longer be 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 65 

questioned, these principles are ruthlessly set aside, by daring in- 
novators, in order that they may exploit some novelty, with which 
to startle the world. 

And so it may be said, that while the discoveries and inven- 
tions of the present era eclipse all those that have preceded it* 
nevertheless it is true that worthless novelties are more prevalent; 
now than at any time past. If we boast, as we well may, of the 
remarkable achievements of science with which our age has been 
blessed, we must not forget that in every civilized country the 
patent offices are packed from cellar to dome with inventions that 
are without merit, and that these discarded inventions out-number 
those in use in such a vast proportion as to afford food for serious 
reflection. 

It is not, however, with innovations, discoveries and inven- 
tions, in the material world that I have to deal in the present dis- 
cussion. I have only referred thereto to show how all-pervasive 
is the spirit of discovery, the thirst for novelty and the desire for 
innovation during the last half of the nineteenth century. 

Outside the physical and material sciences the spirit already 
adverted to has manifested itself with even greater emphasis. No 
doctrine, however time-honored, no law, however well estab- 
lished, no principle however completely demonstrated, has been 
allowed to go unchallenged during the tremendous revolution that 
obtains in our times. Perhaps in religion more than in any other 
department of human affairs has the revolutionary tendency been 
felt. In America especially, with a boldness that is startling, if 
not admirable, daring minds have assaulted every tenet of every 
religion with a recklessness that suggests that novelty rather than 
truth is the goal of their efforts. Even the Jews who have always 
been distinguished for conservatism have not escaped the preva- 
lent tendency. In all ages the Jews have been noted for rising 
superior to the errors of their time, and preserving in their purity 
the laws, doctrines and practices of their ancient faith. Their 
philosophy, founded as it is upon their religion, has withstood 
with varying firmness, but with uniform ultimate success, the as- 
saults made upon it during the ages by every system of adverse 
philosophy, skepticism or unbelief. Even in the present era, the 



66 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

vast majority of contemporary Jews are moving serenely onward, 
unaffected so far as their religion and philosophy are concerned, 
by the storms that rage around them. But in America and notably 
in the United States a large number of more or less enlightened 
Jews have surrendered themselves to the reckless and intoxicat- 
ing thirst for novelty, and have laid rude hands upon everything 
and anything that offered an opportunity for exploitation. What- 
ever is ancient is by them considered banal, and therefore re- 
garded as beneath the dignity of an age that riots in the drunk- 
enness of the present, without respect for the past or the future. 

The movement in which these Jews are and have been en- 
gaged is not factive, but altogether destructive. It does not build 
up, but tears down. Moreover, its destructive processes are with- 
out any rule or system, apparently having no other object than to 
destroy. And when the destruction is complete, there does not 
arise upon the ruins of what has been destroyed any new struc- 
ture brought about by any process, either natural or factitious, 
but on the contrary the destroyers reveling amidst the ruins they 
have made, challenge the amazement and demand the admiration 
of those who have witnessed their performance by pointing to 
the destruction that they have wrought. They seem to thirst for 
a celebrity that to most men would be odious, and might well ex- 
claim that, "The aspiring youth who fired the Ephesan dome out- 
lives in fame the pious fool who reared it." 

It must not be understood, however, from the foregoing re- 
marks that I undervalue the achievements of this century or the 
spirit which made them possible. Considered within its proper 
limits, the ambitious spirit of the nineteenth century must always 
remain to pale the past and light the future. It has advanced civ- 
ilization more in a single generation than was its progress for 
centuries before. It has uncovered many falsehoods and de- 
stroyed them to make room for truths. It has engendered the 
spirit of toleration and the recognition of human liberty, for 
which we can never be too grateful. It is not with the true spirit 
of reform that any rational man can find fault, for the progress of 
civilization from the earliest time to the present received its im- 
pulse from reform ideas. But there is reform, and reform. There 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 67 

is reform and there is revolution. There always travels side by 
side with true reform a lawless spirit of wanton destructiveness 
just as marauding parties accompany a regular army. 

Recurring to the Jews in America, and their participation in 
modern progress and modern methods, it is my purpose to con- 
sider the effect of it, especially upon the Jewish religion. From 
the earliest times there have existed differences of opinion among 
learned and pious Jews in respect of religious matters. The re- 
ligious literature of the Jews could scarcely have arisen but for 
such differences of opinion. Certainly no one who is familiar 
with the history of the Jews and the Jewish religion could, for 
one moment, question the recognized right of individual judg- 
ment. It is well, however, to ascertain the nature of the differ- 
ences which have obtained from time to time among the Jews, 
how they arose, by what standard they were tested, and how they 
were disposed of. These differences may be divided for con- • 
v.enience into three classes. 

First — Differences as to the true interpretation of portions of 
the Pentateuch. 

In respect of these it may be said that learned and pious men, 
recognizing the divine source and authority of the five books of 
Moses as containing the law, differed as to the meaning of certain 
passages found in the law. By some the narrative portion of the 
Pentateuch was construed literally, by others figuratively. So, 
with ordinances contained in the Torah. But in all such cases 
and in respect of all such differences it may be said, without fear 
of contention, that the Pentateuch itself was referred to as the 
basis of discussion, it being recognized by all the disputants as the 
obligatory and God-given law. 

Second — There were differences, and always have been, as to 
the binding force of traditional doctrines and practices not direct- 
ly enjoined in the scriptures themselves. These doctrines and 
practices arose from interpretations of the scriptures by learned 
and pious men, and were frequently, if not generally, promul- 
gated by reason of some local circumstance or environment. As 
to the continued and binding force of such doctrines and prac- 
tices, there have always been differences of opinion, and these 



68 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

opinions have been tested by reference to the Pentateuch itself, 
which, in all such discussions, has been regarded as the binding 
and God-given law. 

Third — There have always been differences of opinion rela- 
tive to changes in liturges and ceremonies, brought about by al- 
tered conditions, due to the progress of civilization. Much acri- 
mony has been developed by such differences; learned disquisi- 
tions have been made in consequence thereof, but the differences 
have always been considered in the light of the Torah, and the 
discussion has been whether they were in consonance with or op- 
position thereto. To anyone, therefore, who studies Judaism, the 
conclusion is inevitable that considered as a practical religion 
there is no rigidity about it. It is eminently a flexible and con- 
forming religion insofar as it affects the habits of the people and 
their rites, ceremonies and practices. It has for its primal object 
the harmony between man and God, and between man and his fel- 
low-men, and it has adjusted itself throughout all the ages by 
slow and logical processes, to every environment in which it found 
itself situated. But in so doing it must always be remembered 
that it did not lose sight of its fundamental and cardinal doctrines 
and practices. 

The differences to which I have referred, all and always arose 
in reference to matters not affecting the integrity of the Penta- 
teuch or its authority as determining the essentials and criteria of 
Judaism. When I say this, however, I am not unmindful of the 
fact that throughout the history of the Jews there have arisen 
Jews by race who have assaulted Judaism itself. In almost every 
age there have arisen men born of Jewish parents who, contam- 
inated by neighboring tribes or other religions, or imbued with a 
skeptical spirit, have made war upon the fundamental and essen- 
tial doctrines and practices of Judaism. But in every such in- 
stance they were regarded and treated as foes of Judaism, and 
there arose champions of the ancient faith to do battle with the 
enemy, and in every instance those who sought to overthrow it 
were vanquished. 

Aaron was a priest in Israel. He was a brother of Israel's 
greatets law-giver and prophet, and in the performance of his 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 6Q 

priestly functions, for the worship of the Jews, set up a golden 
calf. This, however, was not Judaism, and when Moses returned 
from his visit to Sinai, he overcame the idolatrous tendency and 
restored pure Monotheism as the cardinal underlying principle of 
the Jewish religion. 

In the histories of Hezekhiah, Josiah, Elijah, Isaiah, Zacha- 
riah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Malachi, and a host of other kings and 
prophets, of Israel, we may find multiplied instances of similar 
nature. In all of them the integrity of Judaism was endangered 
by descendants of Israel, whose efforts were frustrated by Jews, 
who not only inherited the blood, but also the faith of their fath- 
ers, and who were ever ready to shed the former to preserve the 
latter. Such precedents may serve as a warning against, but 
never as a warrant for, their repetition. 

From what has preceded, we may safely apply to any de- 
parture from what is time honored and traditional in Judaism, the 
following tests : 

i. Does the innovation proposed involve an assault upon the 
integrity and binding force of the Torah ? or, 

2. Is it simply a reform in some matters of ritual or cere- 
mony not directly commanded in the Torah? or, 

3. Is it merely a criticism of some interpretation of the scrip- 
tures, which the critic deems to be inaccurate ? and in this connec- 
tion, does the criticism proceed within the scriptures or is it 
launched at them from without? In other words, is it a matter 
affecting the meaning of the law, without impairing its validity ? 

If the innovation belong to either of the last two, it must be 
regarded as a matter of opinion, within the pale of Judaism, war- 
ranted by the progress of Judaism in the past; and even though 
differences engendered by such innovation may remain irreconcil- 
able among the Jews, yet they cannot be regarded as inconsistent 
with Judaism. For example, there are Jews who contend, most 
earnestly, that the Creator must be worshipped with covered 
heads, who deny the right of the sexes to worship together, who 
insist that flesh of animals and milk shall not be partaken of at 
the same meal, who deem it sinful to write, smoke, cut, ride, sew 
or strike a match on the Sabbath day, even if no labor be in- 



70 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

volved. On the other hand there are Jews who take issue with 
the former upon all of the contentions just mentioned. Here we 
have differences of construction. The hermeneutics of one party 
does not reach the same conclusion as the hermeneutics of an- 
other, but both are agreed that the law is contained in the Penta- 
teuch ; that when it is understood it is binding, and that it does 
not lie within the province of man to overthrow the law or deny 
its authority. They both treat it as the courts of the country 
treat the acts of the legislature. The several courts or judges 
may differ in their interpretation of the legislative enactments, 
but they all agree that the enactments are binding as law. 

If, however, the innovation consists of an assault upon the 
authenticity and binding force of the Pentateuch, Judaism itself 
is assailed. There is nothing in the history of Judaism which 
would even give color to the suggestion that it denies the right 
of individual opinion and the liberty of conscience. Even to those 
who are openly at war with Judaism, sincerity is accorded, and it 
has never been claimed that a belief in Judaism is an essential of 
salvation. In fact, neither Judaism nor the Jews teach that faith 
in anything is an essential of salvation. This is purely a Chris- 
tian doctrine. , 

But it is requisite to ascertain the true nature of any innova- 
tion in order to determine whether it fall within or without Juda- 
ism ; whether it be a departure from Judaism or not. If it be as- 
certained to be a departure from Judaism, it does not necessarily 
follow that the departure is wrong, or that he who has brought it 
about will be doomed. But it does follow that the departure does 
not carry Judaism with it, even though it be brought about by 
Jews. If this were not so, then the departure from Judaism in- 
augurated by Christ and extended by his followers would have 
carried Judaism with it and rendered the preservation of the an- 
cient faith illogical and unnecessary. The doctrines and practices 
of the Christian religion are upheld and followed and have been 
by untold millions of people. The same is true of the doctrines 
and practices enjoined by Mohammed, and it may be that Chris- 
tianity Or Mohamedanism is the true religion. It is undoubtedly 
true that both were derived from Judaism ; and yet it cannot be 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. Jt 

seriously contended by any thinking mind that either Moham- 
medanism or Christianity is Judaism. This is so because in each 
religion which proceeded from Judaism, a new law was formu- 
lated that expressly superseded, modified or abrogated the Penta- 
teuch. Had Christianity or Mohammedanism consisted simply 
of an interpretation of the Pentateuch, it might be with reason 
contended in favor of each that it is the true Judaism. But no 
such claim is made. 

To illustrate the distinction which I undertake to make let me 
briefly refer to the schisms in the Christian church. The Church 
of Rome, the Greek Church and the various Protestant denomina- 
tions differ widely in their interpretations of both the old and the 
new Testaments, but they all agree that the arbiter between them 
in their differences is the Bible; hence, they may all with reason 
claim to be Christian churches. But if a denomination should 
arise, following the ethical parts of the Christian religion, but 
nevertheless denying the divinity of Christ and the binding force 
of his decrees, no man would be absurd enough to call it Chris- 
tian. It is equally true that any man or denomination denying 
the binding force of the Pentateuch as containing the divine law 
is without the pale of Judaism. 

In the light of the propositions already laid down, let us con- 
sider the so-called Jewish reform movement in America. For 
convenience we will assume that it has been in existence for half 
a century. The first and most striking feature in reference there- 
to is its want of system. It has been spasmodic, erratic, and alto- 
gether negative. It has never had a great leader. It has none 
now. No one has arisen as a reformer with a defined idea or pol- 
icy around which gather earnest disciples and followers, but on 
the contrary the entire movement is chaotic, sensational and il- 
logical. It cannot be tested as a whole because it has no unity. 
There is no cohesion among those who have projected and pro- 
pelled it except that cohesion which arises from negation. Each 
so-called reformer has been a leader instead of a follower; each 
has been a law unto himself ; each has denied any standard ex- 
cept that formulated by himself ; each has denied the leadership of 
all others and has assumed it for himself. The so-called reform 



J2 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

movement in each congregation differs from that of all others, 
and even in a particular congregation the movement takes its 
complexion from the minister, who for the time being occupies 
the pulpit ; and so it has come to pass repeatedly, when a minister 
has died or resigned his position in a congregation, that his suc- 
cessor has preached a so-called reform Judaism which did not 
consist with that which prevailed during the incumbency of his 
predecessor. The Judaism of no reform congregation therefore 
can be defined by reference to that of any other, and they resem- 
ble one another chiefly in the fact that they are all differentiated 
from so-called orthodox Judaism. 

The bewilderment which necessarily arises from the fact that 
from each pulpit claiming to be Jewish a different Judaism is 
taught, suggests the necessity of testing these various and con- 
flicting religions by reference to some standard. That standard 
must be true Judaism. All of the so-called reformers proclaim 
themselves as Jews and that their teachings are true Judaism. All 
claim kinship with all other Jews in religious matters. These 
claims are more or less disputed and the so-called reformers are 
denounced by a vast majority of contemporary Jews, as radical 
departers, not only from mere forms and practices, but from the 
essentials of Judaism. In many cases these denunciations are not 
confined to those who are termed orthodox Jews, but so-called re- 
formers denounce other so-called reformers as having departed 
from the true faith. 

To those who are wedded and obstinately cling to the Scrip- 
tures, to their literal interpretation and to all the customs and 
practices imposed by Rabbis, by interpretation or otherwise, any 
innovation is in conflict with Judaism. 

There is, however, another class, and in it are embraced the 
most enlightened Jews, orthodox and reform, who, however 
willing in deference to changed conditions, to drop obsolete cus- 
toms, rights and ceremonies, not enjoined in the Pentateuch, are 
yet unwilling to depart from the essentials of their ancient faith, 
and to them it becomes a matter of vast importance to have a 
standard by which to test the differences that exist between the 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 73 

so-oalled orthodox and the so-called reformers and between and 
among the so-called reformers themselves. 

What then is the common ground upon which all Jews can 
stand ? As we have already seen in times past, when differences 
arose as to interpretations, or as to practices enjoined otherwise 
than in the Torah, the Torah itself was the arbiter. Is it still so ? 
The laymen who have neither time, opportunity or inclination to 
study minutely the history and the development of the Jewish 
religion, and who by reason of their ignorance in respect of these 
matters are utterly confounded by the differences that exist 
among the ministers, have a right to know what is the common 
ground upon which all Jews can and must stand, and it is the 
duty of the Rabbis to answer the question that comes from the 
lips of every earnest and bewildered Jew. What is Judaism? 
What are its criteria ? What are its characteristics ? How is it 
differentiated from all other religions? What is it necessary to 
believe and to do in order to be a Jew religiously ? And be it re- 
membered when these questions are propounded, that the earnest 
seeker after information does not ask what shall / believe ? What 
shall / do to be saved, what shall / believe and what shall / do 
to meet the favor of the Almighty, and what shall / believe in or- 
der to lead a pure life? But what is necessary to believe, and 
what is necessary to do to bring myself within the defined limits 
of Judaism? 

As one of those who are so confused by the differences that 
have arisen, I venture to remark that the ethics of Christianity, 
Confucianism and even Buddhism, if followed, would result in a 
pure life, in justice and mercy to our fellow men, in the practice 
of all those virtues which elevate and ennoble mankind. But 
these ethics are common to all enlightened religions and of them- 
selves do not constitute a religion. Each of the religions named 
is differentiated in one or more particulars from the others, and 
Judaism, if it be a religion, is likewise differentiated. 

Wherein and how? 

Again and again the demand goes forth from those who are 
ignorant to those who are learned : What is Judaism? 

It would seem that so simple a question addressed to those 



74 LEO N. LEyi MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

who have devoted their lives to a study of the Jewish religion, 
should meet with a prompt and explicit reply. But in this coun- 
try, and from the so-called reform leaders, it is apparently impos- 
sible to extract an answer. Will the rank and file submit always 
to their silence? 

In the Menorah Magazine for July, 1887, in behalf of thou- 
sands of Jews bewildered and confused as I was then and am 
now, I addressed an open letter to the Rabbis of America setting 
forth the difficulties under which I and those similarly situated 
were suffering, and earnestly, humbly and respectfully prayed 
for answers to certain questions contained in the letter. AM the 
questions were subsidiary to and finally led up to the one con- 
trolling question — What is Judaism ? Define it, tell us what it is. 

In adverting now to that letter, I appreciate the fact that I 
may, with some show of justice be charged with indelicacy, and if 
the matter under discussion were of less moment I should refrain 
from calling attention to the communication. I am impressed, 
however, with the conviction that in writing it I was not writing 
for myself alone, but for a large class, and that when it was pub- 
lished it ceased to be mine and became the property of all those in 
a like situation with myself. This impression is strengthened by 
the reception which the letter received from the Jewish press in 
this country and abroad. I cannot here undertake to quote all, or 
even any great portion of what was said by the press about it. To 
acquit myself, however, of an apparent want of modesty, I will 
quote a few expressions to show, that I cannot with reason claim 
a proprietary interest in the questions. 

The Jewish Free Press of St. Louis, July 8, 1887, says : 

"The American Jewish youth is waiting with bated breath for 
an answer to the questions propounded by Mr. Levi, and which 
are re-echoed from a hundred thousand young Jewish souls." 

On July 22, 1887, the Jewish Spectator, of Memphis, was tem- 
porarily in charge of Mr. B. W. Hirsh, a brilliant lawyer. On that 
date a leader warmly commending my article and insisting that it 
be answered, appeared. 

The American Hebrew of New York, July 8, 1887, after quot- 
ing my article in the Menorah, says : 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 75 

"We have no doubt tkat Mr. Levi gives expression to the 
thoughts of thousands of sincere Israelites, and the answer should 
be given to him by those entrusted with the position of speaking 
in the name of Judaism. Though an individual propounds the 
questions, they are, in fact, the queries on the lips of the Jewish 
community. It is high time that the people should hear from the 
lips of their teachers "What Judaism is," and not as the custom 
has been "What Judaism is not." Should the appointed expo- 
nents of the Jewish religion fail to vouchsafe the coveted infor- 
mation, laymen may have to step forward and perform the teach- 
ers' task." 

The Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, on July 8, 1887, com- 
menting on the article, says : "It is in effect a call upon the re- 
form movement to define its position." 

To an impartial observer, it would certainly appear that ques- 
tions so simple and so earnest, insisted upon by so many who are 
entitled to be informed, should have been answered. 

How, in fact, were they received, and how answered by those 
whose duty it is to reply? 

In the September Menorah, 1887, Rev. Dr. L. Kleeberg, of 
New Haven, Conn., undertaking to answer the questions, says in 
effect: "The ethical element of the Bible must be considered as 
the real essence of Judaism." Then follow passages from the 
Scripture as to the duty of man, enjoining conduct required by 
every religion of note, such as Christianity, Mohammedanism, 
etc. The ethical teachings upon which Dr. Kleeberg insists are 
enjoined in the XV Psalm, and these ethical teachings, or this 
"ethical element" to use his own language, is his answer as to 
what is the real essence of Judaism. The learned Doctor seems 
to have overlooked the fact that the question is not, "What is the 
real essence of Judaism?" but "What is Judaism?" and he seems 
to have entirely overlooked the fact that all religions teach the 
particular ethical doctrines to which he has called attention. The 
pertinent query arises: If a man lives as enjoined in the XV 
Psalm, shall we ipso facto call him a Jew, a Christian, a Moham- 
medan, or what ? 

In the same magazine for October, 1887, the Rev. Dr. B. Fel- 



70 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

senthal, of Chicago, prints his answer in German. In the Novem- 
ber number of the same magazine the same reply appears in 
English. I quote from the English version wherein he says: 
"Judaism as a religion, is a power which sanctifies our life, and 
which rests upon the fundamental principle of the acknowledg- 
ment of a sole and individual primitive power that conditions and 
fosters morality ; a power in life which germinated and developed 
itself and progressed in the midst of Israel and the Jews. Juda- 
ism is furthermore a religion which has established for itself such 
customs, laws, institutions and ceremonies which were made 
necessary by and fitted to the respective local and timely circum- 
stances and conditions of life among the Jews." 

Again he says : 

"Let us clearly understand it that we recognize and have to 
consider as a Jew, anyone who says of himself that he is a Jew, 
who declares that he finds himself in spiritual connection with 
Judaism, who maintains that his whole mental life roots within 
the soil of Judaism." 

It is difficult to criticise such a nebulous answer. If it means 
anything, it means that he is a Jew who claims to be a Jew. This 
certainly does not resolve any doubts, or offer any standard by 
which to test the claims of conflicting religious schemes all 
claiming to be Jewish. 

On August 15, 1887, in the Jewish Spectator, published at 
Memphis, Tenn., the Rev. Dr. M. Samfield, the editor, says : 

"We may safely predict that no replies will come forth to the 
interrogatories published in the Menorah, not because they are 
questions answerless and irrefutable, but simply because to fur- 
nish Mr. Leo N. Levi with all the information he desires in re- 
sponse to the thirty questions, would involve the publication of 
about fifteen octavo volumes, printed in minion type. We hope 
that no American Rabbi will undertake the gigantic task.'' 

Judaism is assuredly a most complex religion if it cannot be 
defined kiside of the limits named by him. 

The Rev. Dr. Voorsanger, in the Jewish Times, of San Fran- 
cisco, published Aug. 12, 1887, undertakes to reply, but instead 
writes a most eloquent sermon showing how a man can live a 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. TJ 

pure and virtuous life. This sermon might have been written or 
preached by any Christian minister, any follower of Mohammed, 
Buddha or Confucius. It nowhere undertakes to give a definition, 
but devotes itself to the proposition that a man may live a pure 
life and be virtuous without any theology or definitions. This 
may be true, although I think the contrary is easily shown. But, 
true or not, it is no answer to the questions propounded. 

Rev. H. M. Bien, of Vicksburg, undertook to answer in six ser- 
mons which are now to be had in book form, but the value of his 
answer is destroyed by the fact that it does not undertake to de- 
fine Judaism, but does undetrake to define the religious tenets of 
the author. He adopts the XIX Psalm, as furnishing the correct 
guide for love towards God, and duty towards men, and dis- 
courses with more or less eloquence upon his theme. But again 
it may be said that he has not given any answer to the query pro- 
pounded. 

Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise, the Nestor among the American Re- 
form Rabbis, in the Menorah for October, 1887, says : 

"And I will betroth thee unto me forever ; yea, I will betroth 
thee unto me in righteousness and justice, and in loving kindness, 
and in mercy; and thou shalt know thy God." — Hosea 11-22." 

"This formula contains a full and comprehensive definition of 
Judaism what it is per se, in theory, and in practice, what it is, 
was and forever will be, what are its criteria, its characteristics, 
by which it is distinguished from all other creeds and systems. 

"Judaism is the religion of the three-fold covenant between 
God and Man, God and Israel as recorded and preserved in the 
Torah, written by Moses in the book of the Covenant (Exodus 
XXIV 1-8, 2 Kings XXII, 8-10 XXIII-24) expounded and re- 
duced to practice at different times by Moses, the prophets, sages, 
and lawfully constituted bodies of Israel." 

Many other efforts more or less ambitious, were made to fur- 
nish answers to the questions. None except those that I have 
mentioned need be dignified by any reference to them here. Suf- 
fice that they were less meritorious and further from answering 
the questions or any one of them than those to which I have re- 
ferred. In passing I think it but just to say in respect of Dr. 



7& LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Wise that while his answer may not be sufficiently comprehensive, 
at least it has the merit of being a definition. It undertakes to 
assign Judaism to its proximate genus and to differentiate it from 
all other religions by a mention of its specific differences. Whether 
it be sufficient and accurate or not, I am unable to determine. If 
it be accurate, if it be comprehensive, it ought to gain for itself 
the consensus ©f all other Rabbis, whether reform or orthodox. 
If it be inaccurate it should be criticised by other Rabbis. 

It is manifest that with the single exception of Dr. Wise, none 
of those whose replies have come to my attention have under- 
taken to give a definition of Judaism. Many have contended that 
it cannot be defined. If so there must be reason for it, and we 
are entitled to know the reason. When, however, such authority 
as Dr. Wise and others undertake to define it and when we find 
that lexicographers, philosophers, students and scientific men do 
define it, to the comprehension of all men, we cannot be expected 
to accede to the proposition that Judaism is incapable of definition. 
Shall it not then be defined for us, by those who avowedly preach 
and expound it? Shall we not demand such a definition, and 
when the statements are made in response to our demand, how 
shall we test them? 

Prof. C. P. Tiele, of the University of Leyden, in his article 
on Religion, published in the Encyclopedia Brittannica, says : 
"Not only has every religion as a whole and every religious 
group, to be compared with others, that we may know in what 
particular qualities it agrees with or differs from them, and that 
we may determine its special characteristics, but, before this can 
be done, comparative study on a much larger scale must precede. 
Every religion has two prominent constituent elements, the one 
theoretical, the other practical, religious ideas and religious acts. 
The ideas may be vague conceptions, concrete myths, precise dog- 
mas, either handed over by tradition or recorded in sacred books 
combined or not into systems of mythology and dogmatics, sum- 
marized or not in a creed or symbol, but there is no living re- 
ligion without something like a doctrine. On the other hand a 
doctrine, however elaborate, does not constitute a religion. 
Scarcely less than by its leading ideas, a religion is characterized 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 79 

by its rites and institutions, including in the higher phases of de- 
velopment, moral precepts in the higher phases, ethical principles. 
It happens but very seldom, if ever, that these two elements bal- 
ance each other. In different religions they are commonly found 
in very different proportions, some faiths being pre-eminently 
doctrinal or dogmatic, others pre-eminently ritualistic or ethical, 
but where one of them is wanting entirely, religion no longer ex- 
ists. Not that dogma and ritual are religion; they are only its 
necessary manifestations, the embodiment of what must be con- 
sidered as its very life and essence, of that which as an inner con- 
viction must be distinguished from a doctrine or creed — a belief." 

All of the standard dictionaries define religion as, "The recog- 
nition of God, as an object of worship, love and obedience." The 
Imperial Dictionary further defines it as, "The feeling of rever- 
ence which men entertain towards a supreme being, or any order 
of beings conceived by them as demanding reverence from the 
possession of superhuman control over the destiny of man or the 
power ©f nature." 

As explanatory of the latter definition, the Imperial Dictionary 
quotes as foilcws from Prof. Max Muller : "It may be easily per- 
ceived that religion means at least two very different things. 
When we speak of the Jewish or Christian religion or the Hindu, 
we mean a body of doctrines handed down by tradition or in 
canonical books and containing all that constitutes the faith of 
Jew, Christian, or Hindu. Using religion in that sense we might 
say, that a man has changed his religion, that is that he has adopt- 
ed the Christian instead of the Brahamanical body of religious 
doctrines, just as a man may learn to speak English instead of 
Hindustani. 

But religion is also used in a different sense. As there is a 
faculty of speech, independent of all historical forms of language, 
so we may speak of a faculty of faith in man independent of all 
historical religions. If we say that it is religion which distin- 
guishes man from the animal, we do not mean the Christian or 
the Jewish religion only. We do not mean any special religion, 
but we mean a mental faculty ; that faculty which independent of, 
nay, in spite of sense or reason, enables man to apprehend the In- 



80 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

finite under different names, and in varying disguises. Without 
that faculty no religion, not even the lowest worship of idols and 
fetishes would be possible; and if we will listen attentively, we 
can hear in all religions a groaning of the spirit, a struggle to con- 
ceive the inconceivable, to utter the unutterable, a longing after 
the Infinite, a love of God." 

Here we perceive a distinction which has been lost sight of 
almost altogether in the answers of the Rabbis heretofore advert- 
ed to. 

Judaism is defined in all of the standard dictionaries as "the 
religious doctrine and rites of the Jews, as enjoined in the laws of 
Moses." I do not quote this definition as being absolutely cor- 
rect, but merely for the purpose of showing that Judaism is sus- 
ceptible of definition, and that its definition has been undertaken 
by lexicographers, whose efforts in that direction, whether suc- 
cessful or not, are at least comprehensible, and if not correct, may 
be made so. Those who are in touch with Judaism and whose 
vocation it is to study it, may certainly enlarge or correct the defi- 
nition as given in the dictionaries, if that definition requires en- 
largement or qualification. 

There is no religion, and can be none, that does not embrace 
both doctrines and rites. In every religion there must be con- 
tained a doctrine, a belief, a command, as well as a mode of life. 
The acceptance of such doctrines and beliefs, obedience to such 
commands and conformity with such mode of life, are the require- 
ments of the particular religion, and those who do not recognize 
such requirements, place themselves beyond the pale of the re- 
ligion. And this is true, without reference to the virtue or sinful- 
ness of the particular individual. History is full of instances of 
virtuous practices by free-thinkers, skeptics and even atheists. 
Pure and noble men have existed in all religions, and there is 
doubtless some community of spirit among all virtuous men. But 
it would be absurd to contend because there is much in common 
among all good men, that all good men are therefore Christians, 
Buddhists, Jews or Mohammedans. All enlightened religions 
have a common goal, each seeking to reach it by different roads 
or methods. True tolerance recognizes this, and it is in no wise 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 8l 

impaired by the claim on the part of each particular religion, that 
its road and its methods are superior to all others. 

The great age, the glorious history, the magnificent achieve- 
ments and the enduring quality of Judaism must certainly com- 
mend it to the earnest attention of every member of the Jewish 
race. It should be approached by him, with what Mr. Gladstone 
calls "reverential awe." Its criteria, characteristics and essentials 
should be most earnestly considered, and if found true, as ear- 
nestly observed. Those who are charged, or have charged them- 
selves with studying and expounding Judaism, to say the least, 
place themselves in a ridiculous attitude if they decline to make 
the understanding of this ancient faith an easy matter to all men. 
It should be demanded by every Jew, that his minister should ex- 
plain to him, in clear and explicit terms, what is the religion of his 
forefathers and what are its essentials. 

I anticipate that what I have said will be criticised by those 
claiming to have a catholic spirit. It will be contended that I am 
seeking to build a wall around Judaism so as to segregate it from 
all other faiths and thus engender a spirit of intolerance. It will 
be asked, as has already been asked, what matter it whether we 
hold to a certain faith or practice certain ceremonies, so long as 
we lead a pure and virtuous life. Such a question cannot well be 
disregarded, for if it be unimportant to hold to any particular re- 
ligion, or to practice any particular rites and ceremonies, then the 
complaint, which is the basis of this discussion, is itself without 
foundation. I hold that it is of the last importance that a man 
should follow a particular religion in order to lead a virtuous life, 
and when I say "man" I do not mean a particular man or a partic- 
ular class of men, but I mean man in general. 

While the child is of tender years, a command from the parent 
is susceptible of enforcement, either through love or fear on the 
part of the child for the parent. But there comes a time in the life 
of the child when its mind expands, and when its reason demands 
an explanation of the mandates which it is called upon to obey. 
If the father shall tell the child that he must not lie or steal or 
commit violence, the child will ask why? The birds and beasts 
that the child sees about him practice deception, commit theft, and 



82 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

visit violence upon other birds and beasts. Why then should the 
child abstain from these things, which it has set before it by ex- 
ample every day of its life? The parent will promptly respond 
that the child must abstain, because lying, stealing and violence 
are wrong. The child will then ask why is it wrong? Shall the 
parent content the inquiring mind by saying that it is wrong, be- 
cause I, the parent, have so decreed ? Surely not. Will he under- 
take to find a basis in reason for the proposition that lying, steal- 
ing and killing are wrong ? Has anyone ever been able to demon- 
strate, without reference to some revealed law, that man commits 
a sin when he lies, steals or kills ? 

I am not unmindful of the argument that every man possesses 
certain rights, and that whoever invades those rights commits a 
wrong; that every man has a right of life, liberty, property and 
reputation, and that whoever invades these rights commits a 
wrong. But if these propositons are to be accepted as self-evi- 
dent (and unless they be self-evident they cannot be accepted), 
are they not equally applicable to every species of the animal king- 
dom, as well as to man? Does it not follow that lying, stealing 
and violence on the part of the lion and tiger or any other animal 
involve the commission of sin? 

Such considerations must drive the parent at last to a choice 
between teaching morality as a matter of expediency only, or as 
obedience to the divine law. If he elects to teach morality as di- 
vinely ordained, he must be able to explain to the child when, 
where and under what circumstances the law was given, and why 
it is obligatory. This involves the teachings not only of religion 
in its general aspect, but involves the teaching of a particular re- 
ligion. 

I apprehend, however, that it requires no great argument to 
impress upon every Jew the importance of teaching Judaism to 
his children. There is great need, however, of impressing upon 
the Jews the importance of teaching true Judaism to their chil- 
dren. It is a grave breach of faith to a child to teach it a religion 
which the teacher does not believe to be true. For sooner or later 
the child will discover what the teacher regards as spurious, and 
will indiscriminately set aside the entire lesson because of that 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 83 

therein contained which is discredited by the teacher. But upon 
higher grounds than even the welfare of the child should every 
man avoid teaching what he believes to be false. No teacher of 
religion, whatever be its form, can justify falsehood and hypoc- 
risy upon any ground whatsoever, any more than can any man 
justify lying or any other form of wrong-doing. Doing evil that 
good may come of it is a pernicious doctrine that can find no 
appropriate place in any religious scheme, nor in the life of any 
virtuous man. We cannot escape the obligation to teach a re- 
ligion to our children, nor the obligation to see that those charged 
with the task of teaching are sincere in their work. It becomes, 
therefore, for this reason alone, if for no other, of the utmost im- 
portance that the teachers of the particular religion shall be sin- 
cere in their teachings, and shall be in accord as to the essentials 
of the religion they teach. For this reason, among others, the 
Jewish laymen should persist in their demand that the Rabbis 
shall define Judaism, and shall stand by it or leave it. 

I have already shown that the so-called reform Rabbis in the 
United States are not generally in accord, and they are unable or 
unwilling to define Judaism and to indicate the common ground 
upon which they all stand, however great their differences may be 
upon minor matters. In many instances they have suffered them- 
selves to become intoxicated by the iconoclastic and revolutionary 
spirit of the age. They have yielded themselves to the superficial 
skepticism of the present era, which is, after all, but a repetition 
of the same manifestation at different periods of the world's his- 
tory. Whenever man has made great progress in the subjuga- 
tion of nature to his own wants, he has set up his own reason, his 
own intellect as an object of worship. The human understanding 
is set up by a process of deification to be worshipped by itself. It 
undertakes to test every propositon by its own powers, and what- 
ever it is not able to grasp, conceive or comprehend, it rejects as 
necessarily untrue. 

Even in the time of that great philosopher, Montaigne, it was 
the case, and of it he says : 

" 'Tie a very great presumption to slight and condemn all 
things for false that do not appear to us likely to be true ; which is 



84 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

the ordinary vice of such as fancy themselves wiser than their 
neighbors. * * * Reason has instructed me that resolutely 
to condemn anything for false and impossible is to circumscribe 
and limit the will of God and the power of nature within the 
bounds of my own capacity, than which no folly can be greater. 
If we give the names of monster and miracle to everything our 
reason cannot comprehend, how many such are continually pre- 
sented before our eyes ? Let us but consider through what clouds, 
as it were, groping through what darkness, our teachers lead us 
to the knowledge of most of the things which we apply our 
studies to, and we shall find that it is rather custom than knowl- 
edge that takes away the wonder and renders them easy and fa- 
miliar to us, and that if those things were now newly presented 
to us we should think them as strange and incredible if not more 
so than any others." 

"He that had never seen a river imagined the first he met 
with to be a sea; and the greatest things that have fallen within 
our knowledge we conclude the extremes that nature makes of 
the kind. 'Things grow familiar to men's minds by being often 
seen, so that they neither admire nor are inquisitive into things 
they daily see, (Cicero). The novelty rather than the greatness 
of things tempts us to inquire into their causes. But we are to 
judge with more reverence and with greater acknowledgment of 
our own ignorance and infirmity of the infinite power of nature. 
How many unlikely things are there testified by people of very 
good repute which, if we cannot persuade ourselves absolutely to 
believe, we ought at least to leave them in suspense, for to con- 
demn them as impossible is by a Temerarious presumption to 
pretend to know the utmost bounds of possibility." 

The innovations which find their genesis in such a mental 
process as is here condemned are necessarily diverse and without 
cohesion, because the mental processes differ in the ratio of the 
minds in which they occur. And when to this erratic mental proc- 
ess is added an abnormal thirst for novelty, it is readily conceiv- 
able how great and how numerous must be the consequent errors. 

Lord Bacon in his essay on Innovations justly appreciates and 
gives warning against this tendency in the following words : 






JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 85 

"Beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change 
and not the desire for change that pretendeth the reformation; 
and lastly that the novelty though it be not rejected yet be held 
for a suspect." 

It would be easy to show how the greatest minds of every 
age have reached the conclusion that there can be no greater folly 
than to limit one's faith to facts that the mind can comprehend and 
fully explain. It would be equally easy to demonstrate by author- 
ity that the understanding or reason cannot safely be relied upon 
as a guide to conduct. If reason is set up as an object of worship 
or even as a guide to conduct, it should possess the quality of con- 
stancy, it should operate uniformly in all men and in all men pos- 
sessed of the same data it should reach the same conclusion. But, 
on the contrary, nothing is so inconsistent as reason. It not only 
I operates differently in different men, in different eras, but it oper- 
{ ates differently in the same man at different times. If truth or 
1 the conception of it is to depend upon the constant changes in 
the operations of the human intellect, it is unworthy of man's 
aspirations. But the truth exists whether men apprehend it or 
not, and it cannot be measured by man's capacity to apprehend it. 
Mr. Edison, one of the foremost, if not the foremost man of 
his time, one who has done more to distinguish this age than any 
other; one who has mastered more mysteries of nature than any 
other man of his time, has truly observed that: "We don't 
know a millionth part of one per cent about anything." Again 
he has said : "I find that the conceit of man is in the inverse ratio 
to the square of his knowledge." This is but stating in a differ- 
ent way a proposition accepted of all wise men that the greater our 
learning, and the greater our wisdom, the more we appreciate 
how little we know, and how much is beyond the capacity of man 
to know. Nothing could so clearly demonstrate the inconsistency 
and the impotence of reason as the subject of this discussion. 
Men who have refused and do refuse to believe those things 
which their reason cannot comprehend or explain, find themselves 
totally unable by resort to their reason and understanding, to 
explain so simple and historical a fact as the essential nature of 
Judaism. 



86 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

It is a common error to claim that a want of faith is peculiar 
to men of great learning and wisdom, and that the enlightenment 
of this age is responsible for the decadence of faith. That this is 
an error is easily shown. Faith is no easier or harder now than 
it was aforetime. The discoveries of this age render it no more 
difficult to believe the Bible than in times gone by. The ethical 
qualities of the Bible are not impaired in the least by any discov- 
eries of science in this or any other age, and as to the narrative 
portion of the Scriptures scientific discoveries have not augmented 
the difficulties over what they were two thousand years ago. 
It was as difficult for a human mind to comprehend and believe 
the narrative portions of the Bible twenty centuries ago as it is 
now. Skepticism has always arisen from the deification of the 
human intellect by superficial thinkers who do not realize that 
with the Infinite the most exalted mind compares no better than 
the lowest. It is true that increase of knowledge involved the 
decrease of superstition and in the decadence of superstition 
faith necessarily suffered. Superstition bears the same relation 
to faith that alchemy does to chemistry. It is doubtless true that 
chemistry has suffered by reason of its relation to alchemy, but 
it would be the height of folly to entirely set aside and decry 
chemistry, because it was once aligned with the spurious doctrines 
of a false science. True wisdom dictates that we should separate 
the wheat from the chaff, that we should rid ourselves of the 
false and safeguard the true. This distinction which wisdom de- 
mands has not been observed by many so-called reform Rabbis in 
the United States. With them there has been no preservative 
or constructive process. It is not to be gainsaid that even those 
who have departed radically from the traditional faith of their 
fathers have preached virtue and right conduct. But upon what 
basis? They have not derived it from God, nor from His law, 
but from their own minds. They have based it upon utility, man's 
nature, man's natural rights, duties, etc., leaving it at last with- 
out any warmth or vitality which stir the emotions and influence 
the heart. The religion which they have taught is like an artificial 
flower which may deceive the eye for a time, but when closely 
inspected excites the keenest disappointment. 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. 87 

There can be no religion without faith, and that faith cannot be 
limited by man's power of comprehension. Even when it involves 
something beyond the comprehension of the intellect it is not 
repugnant to reason, for it is altogether reasonable that revela- 
tion and miracles should have occurred for the ends for whicb 
they did occur. To deny that they could have occurred is to 
jdeny the omnipotence of the Creator and to limit his power 
to those achievements that man can understand. 

Moreover, the extraordinary occurrences that men reject on 
the ground of reason were in no sense more wonderful than 
those which we see evey day and unhesitatingly accept. They 
differ from the phenomena that are daily apparent only in their 
rarity. The faith that is made to accommodate itself to the 
powers of comprehension in the individual begins and ends no- 
where, for, as has been shown, the power of comprehension is 
constantly changing and necessarily the faith must change with 
it. The faith that is based on reason alone, as reason is defined 
by the so-called reformers, is in the highest sense unreasonable, 
for it has no stability and cannot be imparted to others. No man 
can teach a faith that has such narrow limitations, neither can 
he inspire faith in his reason, for to inspire faith in his reason he 
must have reason in his faith. 

The Jews in America cannot with safety permit the demoral- 
ization which exists in their synagogues to continue. If they 
desire to preserve their ancient religion and impart it to their 
children, they must insist that their spiritual leaders shall define 
that religion, adhere to it themselves, and teach it to the con- 
gregants. Such a demand made by the members of each congre- 
gation upon their respective ministers will, doubtless, result in 
much temporary demoralization, acrimony and strife. Many of 
those who are now posing as Jewish Rabbis will doubtless find 
that they must recede from some of the positions they have held, 
or must separate themselves from Judaism. But when that is 
accomplished we will no longer see the sacred doctrines of Juda- 
ism assailed from Jewish pulpits to Jewish hearers by so-called 
Jewish Rabbis. Time and again have the priests among the Jews 
taught false doctrines ; time and again they have been compelled 



88 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

to recant or depart from the Jewish fold. When Ezra came he 
found the law being violated by the priests, and disregarded by 
the people, and with the aid of Nehemiah, he drove out the false 
priests and led the people back to an observance of the law. His- 
tory repeats itself and in this country there will arise some one 
who, animated with the spirit that governed the life of Ezra, will 
point out to the people wherein they are disregarding the law, 
and by inspiring the people with love and obedience for the law, 
will cause them to scourge from the pulpits the false priests who 
are scandalizing the ancient faith. The people are ripe for the 
■coming of such a leader. They have come to distrust their Rab- 
fbis. They have come to regard with indifference the doctrines 
which are preached from the pulpit. They find themselves unable 
to teach morality to their children except upon grounds of ex- 
pediency. They find in short that they have departed from their 
ancient bearings, and are drifting without rudder or compass ; 
they are beginning to look coldly upon Rabbis who recommend 
themselves almost exclusively by their skill in oratory, by their 
grace of diction, by their capacity to entertain, but who are want- 
ing in the true elements of the ideal Rabbi. The ideal Rabbi, 
for whose coming they are longing, will be a man imbued with 
a perfect faith in God's law as written in Torah; he will study 
it with a broad and liberal mind, seeking always to comprehend 
the will of the Creator to the end that he may observe it ; he will 
be imbued with this faith and filled with this understanding, de- 
voting himself to teaching and practicing the ancient religion, not 
as a mere matter of form, but as a vital and forceful agency to 
accomplish the true development of man's highest nature. To him 
eloquence will consist in deeds, not words ; to him entertainment 
will only be an incident to instruction; to him theology only an 
aid to piety ; to him ceremonies will be divinely ordered means to 
a divinely ordered end; to him the human intellect will be in- 
finitely small compared with the infinite mind of God ; to him man 
will be most clearly distinguished from the animal in that he 
has received by revelation the will of God. Such a man believing, 
following, teaching and practicing the doctrine, the rites and the 
ceremonies of Judaism, will stand forth before the eyes of the 



JUDAISM IN AMERICA. OQ 

Jews as a leader to be followed. Around him will be gathered 
disciples eager to learn and eager to follow, and the multitude 
will take from his lips, and from the lips of his disciples, the 
truths which have been hidden from them so long. And as in 
the days of Ezra, after many years of indifference, the people will 
gather in the temples to pray with a truly worshipful spirit. It 
is only then that the doubts, the vexations, the groanings of spirit 
which now so commonly manifest themselves among the people 
will disappear, then will the people rest their doubts, their diffi- 
culties and their troubles upon the altar of their faith, accepting 
whatever betides as the will of their Creator. With Edwin Booth, 
each man will then consider "That life is a great big spelling book, 
and on every page we turn the words grow harder to understand 
the meaning of, but there is a meaning, and when the last leaf 
flops over we will know the whole lesson by heart." 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 

One of the most interesting, important and unsettled prob- 
lems which this century will hand over for solution to the next, 
is known as the Jewish question. 

Occasionally we hear protests, more or less vigorous, against 
the existence of such a question and the discussion thereof is 
decried as unwarranted by the conditions that obtain. More fre- 
quently we observe a disposition to suppress discussion by those 
who regard the question as the Ancient Sicilians did the lake of 
Kamarina. • But as a rule the matter is neither ignored nor 
avoided. Students, scholars, philosophers and statesmen of all 
classes and creeds have taken it up with more or less earnestness 
and have treated it from various standpoints and in various 
moods. 

So long as the question remains unsettled it may safely be 
assumed that those who are addressing themselves to its consid- 
eration have found no common ground from which to study it. 
The wide differences that exist and the controversies that rage 
over great problems, do not result so much from varying proc- 
esses of thought, as from separate points of view. Whenever 
there is a consensus as to the proper point of view the solution 
is as prompt and easy as the reading of a puzzle picture when the 
clue is found. 

That the problem is yet unsettled is a statement requiring no 
argument or testimony for its support. That it is interesting 
is attested by the fact that in the periodicals and newspapers of 
every civilized counry it is discussed by thinkers to satisfy a de- 
mand on the part of countless readers. That it is important is 
equally well evidenced. The life purpose of such a man as 
Pobiedonotseff in Russia, as Stoecker or Ahlwardt in Germany 
and of Drumont in France and the turmoil each has produced 
or augmented prove how deep the question reaches and how far 
it extends. 

90 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 9 1 

What is the problem, and how shall we approach it to arrive 
at a correct solution? 

This is a thinking, generalizing, classifying and regulating era. 
Education has spread far and wide. History has been studied to 
find a philosophy of causation in the events which history chron- 
icles. Existing civilization is traced back to its very roots, nay to 
the seed from which germinated root, stem, flower and fruit. 
Influences that have operated in the development of that civiliza- 
tion or which have impeded it, those which have made the world 
better or worse, have been scrutinized and classified and accord- 
ing to the judgment of the particular thinker and student com- 
mended for culture or condemned to destruction. 

In the course of this investigation the Jew has not been 
overlooked. Indeed he has obtruded himself not a little on others 
besides thinkers and students. He is everywhere in evidence. 
He sells vodki, practices usury, trades and toils in Russia; he 
matches his cunning against Moslem and Greek in Turkey; 
he fights for existence and endures martyrdom in the Balkan 
provinces; he crowds the professions, the arts, the market place, 
the bourse and the army of France, England, Austria and Ger- 
many; he has invaded every calling in America and everywhere 
he is seen and what is more to the point, he is felt. He is not 
sufficiently numerous or powerful to be in anybody's way, but 
whenever a prize is hung up for superiority in anything, he enters 
the list against the world and somehow and somewhere he wins 
it. He has contended against odds and numbers, against public 
prejudice and governmental regulations, but he has uniformly tri- 
umphed in the end by virtue of that inflexible law which bestows 
the palm of success to him who grasps and maintains it. 

He runs throughout the entire length of history as a thin but 
well defined line touched by the high lights of great events at 
almost every point. Albeit an integral part of the situation in 
which he takes his place, with a nation of his own and scat- 
tered from his race-fellows he has never so far departed from in- 
herited doctrines, rites, customs and habits as to lose his indi- 
viduality as a Jew. He forms what has happily been called a 
Peculiar People. 



92 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

The Jews have not materially increased or diminished in num- 
ber for two thousand years. They have made no proselytes to 
their religion and have not as a people yielded that religion to 
persuasion, argument or force. They have imbibed the arts, the 
literature and the civilization of successive generations, but have 
abstained very generally from intermixture of blood and have 
clung with unrivaled tenacity to the traditional faith, customs 
and habits of their ancestors. They have infused their blood into 
that of other peoples, but have taken but little of other peoples 
into their own. The natural increase in their numbers has made 
up for the losses by defections and as those who wandered away 
were of the weakest among them, those who remained steadfast 
retained and transmitted a vigor not only unimpaired, but con- 
stantly improving. When it is remembered that this constant bet- 
terment has proceeded from an initial point immeasurably in ad- 
vance of any competition, it is not difficult to understand why the 
Jews under anything like equal conditions win the prizes of suc- 
cess. That they do win them is a fact asserted and admitted by 
their friends and their foes. That they exist as a peculiar people 
is agreed by all; that they will not voluntarily surrender their 
identity and individuality is not disputed. 

They are here as they have been for centuries about seven 
million strong scattered among a civilized population almost an 
hundred times greater, invading every field that is open to them 
and so uniformly successful in achievements that are of possible 
attainment as to excite wonder, admiration, envy and hatred. 

And so the great majority stops and studies and thinks and 
asks what shall we do with the Jew ? And the Jew noticing the 
clamor which he has provoked asks, what shall I do with myself ? 
These questions are easily condensed into one, what shall become 
of the Jew? Shall he be regarded as a distinct substance in the 
social and governmental body? Shall he be treated as a can- 
cerous growth to be removed by the knife? Shall he be permit- 
ted to remain by tolerance as a foreign substance in the body 
which when encisted ceases to be lethal? Shall he be wholly 
assimilated or shall he be regarded as an integral and proper, 
if not necessary part of the entire structure, performing functions 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 93 

natural to him and profitable to all, just as the stomach, brains or 
heart of the human body ? 

But let us drop metaphors. Shall the Jew be exterminated? 
Shall he be merely tolerated or shall he be accorded recognition 
as possessing full rights along with the highest and best factors 
of governmental and social progress? 

The general question, what shall become of the Jew, thus 
elaborated presents a problem which the twentieth century will 
have to solve. 

The subject has not yet been sufficiently considered to be en- 
tirely clear, but while it may be too soon to announce the proper 
solution, it is high time to point out some prominent and common 
errors that obtain among those who are addressing themselves 
to the problem. The initial stage in every public problem is one 
of partisanship. It is only after the earnestness of partisans has 
attracted the interest of the entire public that impartial minds are 
enlisted. Thus far the Jewish question has been discussed as a 
rule by those who either loved or hated the Jews with great ear- 
nestness and even passion. The one side has seen nothing in the 
Jews to condemn ; the other could find nothing to admire. Each 
is more or less sincere, and each equally wide of the truth. 

If it were possible to organize a commission of thoroughly 
capable and impartial minds to study the Jewish Question from 
a standpoint unaffected by bias in favor of or prejudice against 
the Jew, and having in view solely the good of society at large, 
it is safe to predict that the result of their studies would be start- 
ling at once to the Jews and the general public. 

One of the first conclusions that such a commission would 
necessarily arrive at would be that the problem is in no sense 
local and herein would be condemned the point of view of the 
great Jew haters in Russia, Germany and France. There is no 
evidence whatsoever to indicate a desire on the part of Pobiedon- 
otseff in Russia, or of Ahlwardt or Stoecker in Germany, or 
Drumont in France to improve the Jews or in any wise to make 
them better members of society. On the contrary, these enemies 
of the "peculiar people" are addressing themselves with remark- 
able vigor and virulence to driving the Jews from their respective 



94 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

countries. To each of them the only acceptable solution of the 
problem as they see it, is to rid their countries of the detested 
race. It remained for an American statesman to point out in a 
single sentence the error, if not the sinfulness of such a con- 
tracted view. In a celebrated message to Congress, President 
Harrison briefly, but tersely, indicated that the banishment of 
the Jews from Russia was a matter in which all nations were 
concerned, because when the Czar of Russia ordered the Jews 
to step out of Russia he in effect bade them step into some other 
country. 

If the presence of Jews in any country produces a disturbance 
resulting in a national disease, it is not only unjust but unwise 
for the nation so affected to rid itself of its trouble by imposing 
it upon some other country. To do so would provoke retaliation 
by which the trouble would be increased rather than diminished. 

Moreover, the remedy is as ineffectual as those prescribed by 
Dr. Sangrado. For it will be found that the patient, rather than 
the disease, will succumb to the drastic remedies employed. 

Considering their wide dissemination, their extended influ- 
ence;, their tenacity and endurance, their existence and their future 
destiny, the Jews must be regarded as presenting a world prob- 
lem rrather than a question affecting only particular countries. 
Neither is the problem to be solved by collecting all the Jews in 
one country and forming them into a nation. The movement 
projected in this direction during the past few years will certainly 
take an impotrant place in the history of our times. It pos- 
sesses a poetic charm and a sentimental attractiveness that will 
win for it friends among those who have only kindly feelings 
towards the Jews, and the enemies of the Jews would hail its 
success for obvious reasons. 

But a colonization scheme, however well planned and ably con- 
ducted, cannot hope for success without colonists thoroughly in 
sympathy with the movement. For the present at least it may be 
safely assumed that the Jews as a rule are unwilling to enter 
into this project and those who are desirous of embracing it 
belong to a class which has everything to gain and nothing to 
lose by a change. Those of the race who have established a 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 95 

domicile in countries where they enjoy some measure of liberty, 
are unwilling to become pioneers in a movement that must lead 
them to untold discomforts, privations and perils. Perhaps in the 
course of time the Holy land will again be peopled by the Jews, 
who may erect a government of their own. But even if this result 
be attained, there will nevertheless be distributed throughout the 
length and breadth of the civilized world so large a representation 
of the Jewish people as to continue the problem as it now exists, 
unless it be settled sooner under conditions of which the Jews 
themselves form a part. 

The impartial commission which I have already mentioned 
would but reflect the views of all fair-minded men in condemning 
those who are avowedly or unconsciously governed by prejudice 
against the Jews. There is no safety in following the views of 
one whose judgment is clouded by prejudice and passion. Men 
of the highest talent are subject to the infirmity of passion and 
acting under this influence employ their natural gifts in the pro- 
duction of brilliant effusions against those who have excited their 
antagonism. 

A partisanship begotten of and nurtured by hate is always 
unwholesome for him who exhibits it, for those towards whom 
it is exhibited, and above all for the society in which it finds a 
place. Such a partisanship should be frowned down by all those 
having in view the advancement of civilization, and indeed in the 
long run it is not only frowned down, but is put down. 

Another great error commonly made not only by those who 
are antagonistic to the Jews, but by those who are disposed to 
be fair and friendly towa d them, consists in this, that the Jews 
being recognized as a peculiar people are treated in their entirety 
as being foreign to the body politic in which they dwell. By such 
thinkers they are considered altogether objectively. In the minds 
of those taking this view, the Jews as a class are ranged upon 
one side, the balance of the world on the other and the reciprocal 
rights and wrongs of the two sides are weighed, to the end that 
the differences, if any, which exist between them may be prop- 
erly adjusted. If the Jews constituted a nation and had a gov- 
ernment of their own, they might be regarded in this light, but 



96 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

when it is reflected that they are scattered throughout the worltt, 
domiciled in different countries, where they accept the burdens 
and enjoy the privileges of citizenship, it will be readily seen 
that such a consideration of the problem is illogical and unjust. 

The Jew of France is if anything more intensely French than 
Jewish. The Jew of Germany is as much imbued with the 
patriotic ideas that have made the German Empire possible as 
any subject who yielded his blood to form the cement of the 
imperial fabric. And even in Russia, where the Jew has had so 
little to kindle his patriotism, so intense is his love for Russia 
that he weeps at the very thought of being driven from her bor- 
ders, even when he is offered an asylum in countries where he 
will be subject to no restrictions on account of his race or 
religion. 

The Jew is not only to be regarded as a Jew but as a citizen. 
He is not an alien, but a compatriot. He is not a foreigner, but 
a native. He is not an enemy, but an ally. He is a part and 
parcel of the social organization amidst which he finds himself 
and he must be so considered. If he stood apart in all things 
from the civilization in which he dwells society might well inquire 
into the propriety of suffering him to affect that civilization. But 
he is already a part of it. He has helped to build it up, he has 
in a large degree shaped its career, he remains to affect its future 
course, and when society addresses itself to the consideration of 
the Jew, it must regard him as an integral factor of itself, so 
interwoven with the general fabric that anything which affects 
him must more or less directly affect all. 

It is a gross error, and a most unjust one, to consider the Jews 
as a separate and distinct people in respect of any matter that is 
not distinctly or peculiarly Jewish. In the pursuit of any calling, 
trade or profession, pursued along legitimate lines there is no wis- 
dom or justice in regarding the Jew in a different light from that 
which is shed upon any other member of society. It can be of no 
concern to the consumer that the producer, manufacturer, or ven- 
dor of an article consumed is a Jew, Mohammedan or Christian, 
a Frenchman, German or American. The prime consideration, 
if not the only one, is the price of the article as compared with 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 97 

others of like character and quality. So, too, it can make no dif- 
ference in the arts, what is the religion or race of the artist, nor 
in the sciences, nor the professions. The music which delights 
an audience, is neither better nor worse for having been produced 
by musicians not of the same race or religion with the audience. 

And if it be contended, as it is in Germany and France, that 
the Jews forming a small minority of the national population 
practiclly monopolize certain branches of learning and art and 
commerce, that fact is rather to be urged in their favor than 
against them, unless it can be shown that this monopoly results 
from methods peculiar to this people and in themselves illegiti- 
mate and hurtful. 

In their domestic life the Jews should also be free of officious 
intermeddling, unless the character of that domestic life is in- 
jurious to the public at large. The same may be said of their 
religion and the practice thereof. 

In short, the Jew should be treated as any other member of 
society, as possessing full liberty to seek happiness along lines 
of his own selection without any restrictions, except those that 
are imposed for the general welfare of society. This principle 
so manifestly correct is undisputed even by those most violent 
in their denunciation of the Jews, but they curiously contend 
that since the Jews are in a hopeless minority, the welfare of so- 
ciety is impaired by the success of the Jews. It is argued that 
when they monopolize positions of vantage in science and art, 
in the trades and the market places, they exclude others represent- 
ing the great majority from those positions. If this argument 
were not persisted in with so much force and received with so 
much favor it would scarcely merit attention. A few questions 
addressed to those who offer it would certainly confound them 
and utterly destroy the effect of the views they advance. 

Will it be seriously contended that if the Rothchilds had 
never lived, there would have arisen Christian financiers of like 
eminence? That but for Moses Mendelsohn and Spinoza, there 
would have been two great Christian luminaries in the philosophic 
world to fill the places occupied by them? That if there had 
been no Heine, there would have arisen in Germany a poet, who 



98 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

could have blended as he alone has done, the Hebraic and Hel- 
lenic spirit? That but for D'Israeli, there would have been an 
English statesman not of Jewish blood to create British unity and 
symbolize it with an imperial crown? That Montefiore and 
Baron de Hirsch have usurped and monopolized the field of phil- 
anthropy and that consequently there is no room for good works 
on the part of other people ? To such questions but one answer is 
offered, to-wit: That Jewish success, which excludes all rivalry 
is due to certain methods of the Jews that cannot be practiced 
by their competitors. If this be true, it is proper to inquire what 
those methods are, and if they are illegitimate, they should be 
suppressed. And certainly society, so largely outnumbering the 
Jews, can have no difficulty in putting down illegitimate practices 
indulged in by a minority to the detriment of society. 

If, on the other hand, those methods are found to be legitimate 
in themselves and end in such magnificent results, they should be 
emulated and followed rather than condemned and suppressed, 
otherwise society at large will practice the supreme folly of which 
the Greeks were guilty when they ostracized their noblest citizen, 
because they were tired of hearing him called just. Civilization 
advances upward not only by stepping on its failures, but by cling- 
ing to its successes. It advances by pulling itself upwards to- 
wards those who are in the front, rather than by dragging the 
leaders back to the common herd. 

The Jewish Question is not to be solved by tolerance. There 
are thousands of well meaning people who take to themselves 
great credit for exhibiting a spirit of tolerance towards the 
Jews. 

Tolerance presupposes inferiority on the part of those towards 
whom it is exhibited and superiority on the part of those ex- 
tending it. In religious matters it is manifestly a proper spirit 
For the follower of any particular religion is justified from his 
standpoint in believing his own to be better than all others, and 
all others inferior to his own. It is absurd, however, to accord 
to the Jew superior skill, talent and wisdom in the sciences and 
the professions, the arts and in commerce, and then forsooth, out 
of a spirit of liberality to tolerate him in these walks of life. 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 99 

The individual Jew of an inferior mold may be tolerated by 
his superiors from a sense of justice or out of consideration for 
the people to which he belongs, but the Jews as a class cannot 
be tolerated, unless they be regarded as inferior. The charge 
of inferiority is nowhere brought against them. Their religion 
is denounced, their clannishness condemned, their disposition to 
live by their wits rather than by manual labor is decried, but 
mentally, physically and morally they are recognized as occupy- 
ing as high a plane as those of their competitors in the same 
walk of life. 

In Russia where the religion is a part of the State, there 
is some logical basis for the exhibition of tolerance, but in coun- 
tries where church and state are divorced and where the Jew's 
right as a citizen is as unquestioned as the right of any other 
member of the community, his liberty, his privileges, his stand- 
ing in society must depend upon his own merits and not upon 
the favor of others. 

On the other hand, if the Jews should be justly accorded all 
the rights possessed by other citizens, it should be because as 
individuals and as a class they are entitled to those rights and 
have not forfeited them. 

If the Jews with justice cry out against persecution and pre- 
judice they must in justice recognize that they must claim no 
favors. If as a class they are sordid, mercenary, dishonest, 
unclean, parasitical, bigoted and unproductive as charged against 
them by their enemies, society has the right to protect itself 
against them by such measures, offensive and defensive, as are 
best calculated to insure protection. 

The evidence in support of all these indictments must be con- 
sidered and weighed and a verdict based thereon. It will not do 
to invoke any high sounding principles of liberality, tolerance or 
equality by way of demurrer to the accusations. Every society 
has the right and the duty to protect itself against harm from 
without and within, and if one remedy is not effectual to secure 
that protection others may and always will be employed by or 
against precedent. Civilization is always progressive and invents 
new methods when old ones fail. 



IOO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

I realize that in America such expressions on my part are apt 
to be denounced as inconsistent with the genius of American 
government. But I do not dispair of successfully maintaining 
the doctrines just announced in the face of any sort of opposition. 
It must not be forgotten by Americans who live under a written 
constitution, that they stand almost alone among the great peoples 
of the earth in their reverence for form in government. Else- 
where than in America form and forms in government are of 
secondary importance. The objects of government rather than 
clearly stated principles are avowedly held in the highest esteem 
in trans-Atlantic and especially in autocratically governed coun- 
tries. And indeed, however much we honor precedents and bow 
down before the Declaration of Independence and the Federal 
Constitution, we, too, if we do a little healthy thinking, must 
come to see that forms of government are means to an end and 
not in themselves ends. And so this axiom may be relied on as 
always true, that when axioms of government clash with its 
objects, so much the worse for the axioms. Not only is this true 
in matters of government, it is likewise true in social life. 

We may repeat as often as we please the general statement 
that all men are born free and equal, and that every man has the 
right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness and the 
worship of God according to the dictates of his own conscience, 
yet when we seek to apply these declarations to practical life and 
find in any given instance that they enable individuals or classes 
to so develop their own careers as to unjustly interfere with the 
rights and liberties of others, we usually find grim facts standing 
in the way of mere theories. 

The principle that each man shall so use that which is his as 
not to interfere with the rights of others, whether or not it be 
expressed in the law books or sanctioned by the courts, will find 
expression, application and execution in the conduct of the public. 

The supeme law of all free countries, if not indeed of all coun- 
tries, is justice, as understood and interpreted by the people. 
This law formulates itself through the legislative branches of 
government, but time and again have the people, impatient of 
a change in the form of the law reasoned above and against these 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. IOI 

forms in order to accomplish justice for the time being. Much 
as we may deplore indignities which are done to the forms of the 
law at times, we cannot close our eyes to the fact, that whenever 
an emergency sufficiently great arises, the people will disregard 
the forms of the law in order to achieve the objects of organized 
society. 

The Jew scarcely needs to be reminded of this truth, for 
throughout his entire history he has rightfully or wrongfully been 
subjected to persecutions and indignities that were more fre- 
quently in contravention of law than in conformity thereto. He 
has never been able to shield himself against oppression and 
tyranny by an appeal to the law. He never will. His case must 
be broad, based on justice per se and not upon the letter of the 
law. He must submit his case to the bar of public opinion, and 
it must be tried fairly upon the evidence. 

If I have dwelt so long upon this subject, it is because I 
recognize that if the Jew has been denied so much that is right- 
fully his, he often claims more than his due. One of these claims 
most persistently urged, is that there is no Jewish Question; that 
the Jew is a citizen like every other citizen and that so long as 
he abides by the law and does not subject himself to criminal pros- 
ecution or civil action, his doings are beyond legitimate inquiry 
by the public at large. This contention on his part would cer- 
tainly be well based if he claimed nothing further than the right 
to live in peace, but when he demands social recognition the 
whole range of his conduct is a legitimate subject of inquiry 
against which no technical demurrers can be interposed. When 
he is charged with being sordid, mercenary, parasitical, filthy, 
clannish and bigoted, he must admit the testimony in support of 
the charges and if he cannot refute it, must accept the verdict. 
Nor must the Jew be over sensitive about the inquiry. If with 
any justice he can point with pride to the history and achieve- 
ments of his race, he should be grateful rather than indignant 
at being classed as a member of that race. 

The inconsistencies and the unwisdom exhibited in the con- 
sideration of the Jewish Question are not to be found altogether 
on the side of those who are hostile to the Jews. If those who 



102 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

declaim against the Jew select as types the worst representative* 
among them, it is too frequently the case that those who declaim 
in behalf of the Jews have eyes only for the highest exemplars. 
Someone has justly remarked that the truth lies between extremes 
and about equi-distant from both. 

If the Jews squirm and indignantly protest against Shylock, 
Fagin and Svengali, they must be consistent and not claim as 
types Scott's Rebecca and Lessing's Nathan the Wise. The cold 
truth lies in this : The Jew has never been and cannot be typified. 
Shylock was an individual and was pictured truly as Shakespeare 
knew or imagined him. So of Fagin. Dickens was conspicu- 
ously strong in pictures from low life, and conspicuously weak 
in drawing refined people of the upper crust. On the other hand, 
Rebecca was the picture of a singularly sweet Jewess, while 
Nathan, the Wise, was a thin disguise for the great Moses Men- 
delsohn. No people can be fairly judged by its superlatives. 
The Jews are not and never have been as a class on the high plane 
of Lessing's hero, or the low plane of Shylock or Svengali. The 
same may be said of the Christians, Moslems, Buddhists or any 
other people, nation or race. It would be silly to judge all the 
Chinese by Confucius, or all the Americans by Benedict Arnold. 
A race, a people, or a nation must be judged as a whole, and 
who does not know or study them as such is unfit to judge. 
When the Jew hater undertakes to judge the Jews by the few 
unworthy ones within the range of his acquaintance, he commits 
a grievous wrong. When the Jew, on the other hand, claims 
for his people that they are truly typified by their best and noblest 
exemplars they err on the other side. 

The history of a race or people must be studied, their achieve- 
ments and their endurance measured, their failures and triumphs 
compared, their difficulties estimated and their mission under- 
stood. We must look into their art, science and literature, their 
religion and ideas of government, their social and domestic life. 
In short, we must grasp the genius of the whole by a close insight 
into the average or type of the class. Then and not till then 
can we fairly judge where the people or race is to be placed, and 
how they shall be treated. These will be judgments based on 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. IO3 

facts; not mere outcries of a sentimentalism pitched as the case 
may be in a key of love or a key of hate. 

The Jews doubtless possess many virtues and many faults and 
these virtues and these faults are not peculiar to them, except 
so far as they find an emphasis among the Jews. They are a 
peculiar people and certain qualities physical, intellectual and 
moral are emphasized in them to such a degree as to be regarded 
as Jewish qualities. The Jews are not slow to claim these qualities 
as racial characteristics when the qualities are such as excite 
admiration, but they are unduly sensitive to a criticism which 
points out any quality attributed to them as Jews and which is 
an impairment of their reputation. May not the truth lie in 
this suggestion; that the success of the Jew, his sobriety, his 
temperance, his energy, his physical and intellectual superiority 
are all due to a certain intensity of character inherited and ac- 
quired, and that this very intensity operates upon his faults as well 
as his virtues and lends to them an emphasis not to be observed 
as a rule among other people. I do not wish to be understood 
as advancing this as a proposition which commends itself to me 
as indisputably sound. It does occur to me, however, that much 
might be said in support of it and that in any event the Jew must 
patiently recognize that he is constituted like other men, is sub- 
ject to the same infirmities, amenable to the same temptations 
and liable to be guilty of the same wrongs, and that when he 
proceeds in the wrong direction, being more vigorous, more 
talented and more intense than other people traveling in the same 
direction, he is liable to go further. 

And this might well be admitted without any disparagement 
to his claim of equality with or superiority to any other people. 

After all, the question of greatest interest is, are Jewish 
tendencies more generally in the right direction than the wrong 
direction, and is the tendency towards good developing and the 
tendency towards evil diminishing, or vice versa? This is the 
question in which society at large is greatly interested and the 
Jews more so. Both must address themselves towards cultivat- 
ing the tendency towards good and suppressing the tendency 



104 LE ° N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

towards evil and in this will be involved the same inquiry as 
affecting the entire body of society. 

I say this because t feel that history, both past and contem- 
porary, will demonstrate that while the Jews as a class have often 
been superior to their environment, they have never been worse. 
Both society in general and the Jews in particular should ascertain 
what qualities and practices peculiar to the Jews have advanced 
the Jews and made them better, stronger, more talented and more 
virtuous than other people. And since like causes beget like 
effects, these qualities should be emulated and imitated by all 
other members of society and on the other hand whatever is pe- 
culiar to the Jew, that impairs his vigor, his talent and his virtue 
should be discouraged by society at large and eschewed by the 
Jews. 

It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the virtues 
or the faults of the Jews. I am not addressing myself to the 
merits of the Jewish Question, but to the standpoint from which 
it should be considered. I venture to say, however, that such a 
commission as I have already mentioned would point out in the 
light of history, that in the march of civilization the Jew has been 
a factor for good more than for evil ; that today he is advancing 
civilization more than he retards it; that he possesess many vir- 
tues which society would do well to emulate; that there is in his 
religion nothing of evil to society and elements of good beyond 
the power of estimation ; that in his family life there is exhibited 
a purity of sentiment and tenderness of relationship and devotion 
to obligation, that is nowhere equalled ; that by assiduity, in- 
tensity of purpose, persistency, energy and the capacity for taking 
pains, he rises to heights that account for his astounding success. 

On the other hand they might with justice indicate, that hail- 
ing originally from the Orient and having been compelled for 
twenty centuries to live in a society of his own, debarred from 
mingling upon terms of social equality with the highest mem- 
bers of society, he has preserved in his tastes much that is char- 
acteristically oriental. That his intercourse with the best elements 
of society has not been sufficiently protracted to enable him to 
assimilate the refinements of taste and beget a grace which is to be 



WHAT SHALL BECOME OF THE JEWS. 105 

found only among those who for generations have occupied the 
plane of the highest gentility. That he is self-asserting to a 
degree that often makes him obnoxious and that he is very sensi- 
tive to criticism. There may be other faults that might be laid 
at their doors by impartial students. Whatever they be they 
should be received with patience, considered without irritation 
and corrected with that resolute spirit and intense purpose which 
friend and foe alike attribute to the Jew. When the Jewish 
Question shall thus be studied, it will soon be solved. The suc- 
cess of the Jew may be emulated and even be envied, but there 
will be no effort to pull him down simply because he is a Jew. 
Neither will there be any special privileges accorded to him be- 
cause he is a Jew ; nor will he be left free of criticism and adverse 
judgment because the critic may fear a charge of prejudice. In 
all things the Jew will stand as does every other citizen — upon 
his merits, achieving such success as his merits deserve, suffer- 
ing from such failure as his shortcomings bring about. Then 
too will it be understood and recognized what is too often now 
forgotten, that every man's success in the main must depend upon 
himself. 

In all the affairs of life, apparently within man's control, we 
are prone to play at Providence. We love to regulate everything 
so as to bring about or maintain an equilibrium as we understand 
it. If one is too strong we try to weaken him. If another is too 
weak we try to strengthen him, always having in view to make 
the contest equal. Our continued failures do not deter us from 
continuing the effort and perhaps it is best for us that we should 
keep on trying. If it does no one else good, it does him good 
who tries. 

But in the race of life between peoples, neither individuals 
nor governments can make rules or change them. The inexorable 
law is fixed by nature under the guidance of nature's God. The 
track is broad, the course long and beset with difficulties. The 
racers are without handicaps of any kind. The start in the final 
race is even; there are no favorites. The contest begins with 
the tap of the bell and ends only when the winner comes under 
the wire. There is no "weighing in" to test the weights, and 



io6 



LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 



the prize goes to the victor without regard to pedigree or age. 
Pluck, speed and endurance must win. It may be hard on the 
beautiful and well-backed contestants who lag behind, but no 
heart-aches of defeat, no humiliation on the part of the loser 
should impel us to change the rule of the race. There would be 
less elation and less sorrow if the prize were equally divided, 
but without such elation and sorrow there would be no great 
contestants. It is by victory and defeat, through joy and sorrow, 
that we achieve civilization, progress and betterment. The battle 
to the strong, the race to the swift seems cruel but it is the law, 
which we would not change if we could, for we realize its lofty 
quality — it is Justice. 

The application of this law to the relations between the Jew 
and the civilization of which he is a factor is all that he may 
ask and less than which cannot with justice be accorded to him. 
Let no misguided friend of the Jew ask for sentimental favor be- 
cause of the great beacon lights in history upheld by the Jews. 
Let no misguided foe of the Jews turn his back upon that history 
and subject them to oppression. Let justice be done, equal and 
exact justice, in all respects equal and in all respects exact. 



THE INTELLECTUAL AND ETHICAL 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
AMERICAN JEW. 

By Leo. N. Levi. 

In treating of my subject, it becomes, in a measure, neces- 
sary to consider the history of the Jews in America, for that 
their history not only states but fully explains their mental and 
moral evolution. 

Leaving out of consideration the few pioneers who came to 
the United States in the early days, we may, for the purpose in 
hand, say that our children compose the third generation of Israel- 
ites in this country. 

To the end that the progress achieved may be made clear, I 
propose to examine each of the three generations in turn, and 
shall endeavor to find the type of each era. The difficulties of 
such an undertaking are not to be mistaken or disregarded. The 
synthetic process by which from great numbers we form a typical 
representative is rarely successful. The scope of human observa- 
tion is so limited, the fallibility of human discernment so common, 
and the critical quality so rare, that very seldom, indeed, is a 
so-called type more or less than the sum of the impressions cre- 
ated on the observer by a few elements of the class sought to be 
typified. When we reflect further, that the deepest impressions 
are made by extravagant characteristics, we must recognize the 
danger of mistaking a caricature for a type. This danger has 
been realized the world over, in respect to the Hebrews. Writers 
and artists, as a rule, present as a typical picture of the Jew an 
exaggeration of the worst specimen with whom they have come 
in contact. Thus, in literature, it is common to find the Jew 
as bent in form, ugly in feature, vulgarly gaudy, disgustingly 
unclean, speaking a miserable jargon, wholly wanting in cul- 

107 



108 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

ture, and exhibiting a moral corruption that passes all compre- 
hension. He is painted as a low, cunning and vindictive crea- 
ture, who cringes to power and domineers over weakness. If 
any virtue whatever be attributed to him, it is carefully minimized 
by looking at it through the wrong end of the same glass which 
was skilfully employed to enlarge his shortcomings. And this 
process of depiction, which is in daily use, is called art. If the 
Jew protests against being made the target of unjust prejudice, 
he is assured that art loves truth and eschews prejudice. He is 
told that, like the camera, art represents what stands before it, 
registering the lights and shades, the straight and the crooked 
lines. Nor may this be gainsaid; but shall we call them artists 
who clothe virtue in the garments of sin and "apparel vice like 
virtue's harbingers ?" The true artist seeks and finds truth in its 
nakedness and purity. Error, though tenacious of life, yields 
at last to time; but truth is immortal. The creed, the govern- 
ment or the people that is permeated by or built upon error must 
inevitably perish from the earth; and whatsoever endures, de- 
spite the destructive friction of ages, may be safely credited, in 
its genesis and its career, with the lasting elements of truth, that 
"tire time and torture." This is the ultimate of all criteria, and 
where shall be found the measure of the test save in the Jew? 
The prejudice against the descendants of Israel is slowly but 
surely receding before the march of genuine enlightenment. The 
nations of the earth, one by one, are coming to see that their 
numbers, power and influence, after centuries of oppression, evi- 
dence the sterling stuff of which they are made, and denounce 
the grotesque knave who is dignified by false art with the honor- 
able designation of the Jew. It could not, without disgrace to 
the world, be otherwise. If the sordid creature, in whom the 
Israelites have been caricatured, typifies the race, what apology 
can civilization offer for Jewish prestige and power in everything 
of which civilization makes boast? Shall it be admitted that in 
the long march of events ignorant cunning has triumphed over 
intelligent thought; that courageous honor has yielded to craven 
depravity and that free and manly virtue has receded before 
servile sin? Assuredly not. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. IOQ. 

The Jew is neither saint nor devil. 

He never was more than man with all of man's frailties nor 
less than man with all of man's aspirations towards the divine 
ideal. But in some respect he differs from all other men and in 
these specific differences are to be found the true elements of the 
Jewish type. 

When he has faltered and fallen by the way it was because of 
the human weakness that at times forces the bravest to yield; 
but in always rising from defeat to victory he has displayed 
the sublime courage that he alone has truly learned from the 
sweetest singer of Israel : "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror 
by night ; nor for the arrow that flieth by day. Nor for the pesti- 
lence that walketh in darkness ; nor the destruction that wasteth 
at noonday." 

Let us then look upon this people in relation to our subject, 
as men, moved and swayed like other men, and only differing 
from other men in the characteristics which typify them. These 
characteristics are no peculiarities in dress or speech; they are 
not mere idiosyncracies of manner, nor depravities of heart or 
mind. On the contrary they are inherent qualities, modified, 
it is true, but not radically altered, by the history which those 
qualities have made. The history of the Jew has been to him 
like the banks of a stream. They confine and mark the boun- 
daries of the current and in a large measure determine its 
course, and yet the stream makes and changes its banks and works 
its own passage to the sea. 

The Jew began his career with a mission. To fulfill it he was 
endowed with certain qualities. He has met obstacles that have 
impeded and delayed him ; he has been forced to deviate from the 
direct route and often to retrace his steps, but his course has been 
as unceasingly onward as that of the stream, which starting from 
some mountain top, channels its way through and around the 
loftiest hills in its journey to the ocean's level. And as the stream 
which started with only crystal water becomes at times impure 
by the deposit taken from its banks, so the Jew whose mission is 
divinely pure, has taken on dross from his environments. When 
normal conditions are restored in the current of the stream the 



IIO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

impure matter is precipitated and the water is restored to its 
original clearness. Perhaps it will be so with him. 

Israel was chosen as a nation of priests to teach to all the'* 
nations that God is one, that his commandments make up the 
only true moral code, and that the highest virtue and therein 
the greatest happiness is only attainable through the worship 
of God and the observance of his statutes. For such a stupen- 
dous task, the final performance of which was then and is yet so 
remote, no ordinary qualities were sufficient. It required long 
preparation to fit them for the undertaking. The idolatrous spirit 
which again and again made them forsake their Creator had to 
be eliminated. The carnal appetite that made them hunger for 
the flesh-pots in preference to liberty had to be curbed. In lieu 
of the cowardice natural to newly emancipated slaves, they had 
to be invested with unflinching courage. But they had able and 
inspired teachers, and after the prophets and sages had devoted 
themselves to the great work of education we find that this nation 
of slaves had become indeed a nation of priests fully equipped 
for the grandest mission ever imposed upon any people. Not in 
vain was Moses meek and Joshua bold ; not in vain was Solomon 
wise and David eloquent with music whose cadence has not yet 
died away. By persuasion, conviction and force, with music and 
speech and fire and sword the education proceeded until through- 
out Israel there existed unwavering faith in God and unfaltering 
observance of his decrees. The Assyrians and the Persians, the 
Greeks and the Macedonians, the Carthagenians and Romans in 
turn ruled the world with a temporary power founded solely on 
prowess in the field — but the Jews alone maintained the faith ' 
and practices upon which all true civilization is founded. The 
Roman arms leveled the walls of Jerusalem, the Roman legions 
desecrated the temple and scattered the nation of Israel, but the 
fugitive and hunted Jews even in their flight hugged to their starv- 
ing bosoms the divine Torah. Such was the people that then be- 
gan their endless wanderings; the saddest story in history. It 
is a story of murder, robbery, rapine, oppression, contumely and 
debasement to which the Jews were almost continually subjected 
for i, 800 years. Church, State and society combined in unceasing 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. Ill 

warfare on the Jew. He was allowed neither freedom of con- 
science, thought, property nor person. He was denied the pur- 
suit of happiness and the worship of God. These were his 
environments for centuries ; these were the banks through which 
coursed for ages the limpid waters that had their initial flow even 
beyond Sinai. It is not so amazing that the stream has become 
more or less impure, as that it has not been dried up and lost. 

How beautifully has a gifted daughter of the race depicted 
the martyrdom and debasement of her people: 

"Day long I brooded upon the passion of Israel, 

I saw him bound to the wheel, nailed to the cross, cut off by the 

sword, burned at the stake, tossed into the seas. 
And always the patient, resolute martyr-face arose in silent rebuke 

and defiance 
A Prophet with four eyes; wide gazed the orbs of the spirit 

above the sleeping eyelids of the senses 
A Poet, who plucked from his bosom the quivering heart and 

fashioned it into a lyre. 
A placid-browed Sage, uplifted from earth in celestial meditation. 
These I saw, with princes and people in their train ; the monu- 
mental dead and the standard bearers of the future. 
And suddenly I heard a burst of mocking laughter, and turning 

I beheld the shuffling gait, the ignominious features, the 

sordid mask of the son of the Ghetto." 

It is at such a stage in the career of Israel that the history of 
the American Jew begins. 

When persecution had accomplished in many portions of Eu- 
rope, the result so graphically described by the poetess ; when the 
most prominent, because almost the only apparent characteristics 
of the Jew, were narrow bigotry, low cunning and ignorant su- 
perstition, a new light shed its flickering rays upon his sombre 
fate. Through the dark and squalid alleys and into the dismal 
homes of the Jewish quarters in Germany, Poland, Russia and 
the Balkan Provinces crept strange, uncertain tidings of a country 
far beyond the seas. There came from the lips of ignorant news- 



112 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

bearers at second or third hand, strange rumors that there was 
one country where freedom prevailed. As if to a fairy tale, 
bearded men and hooded women listened to stories of the Great 
Republic. They knew little of its geography, less of its history and 
scarcely anything of its institutions. They had not heard of 
the Declaration of Independence ; they did not dream of our bill 
of Tights and our peerless Constitution. Scarcely was there room 
in their shrunken minds for the idea of civil, religious or social 
liberty. But as tidings followed tidings, there quickened in the 
barren souls a long smouldering aspiration. They thrilled with 
an awakening love of liberty, like a long caged bird that sees 
in its declining years its prison door ajar. The stripling whose 
bent figure thus early patterned after that of his sire, stood erect 
under the glorious inspiration of hope. The eye that glittered 
only in cunning now shone with the lustre born of lofty ambition. 
The youthful breast heaved in tumultuous agitation, and the slug- 
gish blood leaped from the heart like a high bred charger in 
battle. And when the first exhilaration had subsided there re- 
mained a determined and restless purpose to seek the New Jerusa- 
lem. The love of home and kindred, the dread of strange lands 
and of strange people, the terror of the sea and a thousand "hor- 
rible imaginings " had to be overcome before the youth could make 
the grand venture. But the hour came. The mother's tears were 
exhausted, the father's misgivings were quieted, the farewell ca- 
resses and blessings were bestowed, and the adventurer crept from 
his home with the humility of a slave in his demeanor, but the 
spirit of a hero in his bosom. We can fancy him now in his 
grotesque attire, plodding along the highway to the seaside, car- 
rying his humble wardrobe in his modest bundle, and husband- 
ing every penny lest the scanty store should not suffice to secure 
him a steerage passage. We can see him embarking on a journey, 
to him as fearful as that of the "world-unveiling Genoese." 

A transatlantic voyage is now a trifling matter ; but fifty years 
ago it was so serious that only emergencies of great moment were 
deemed sufficient to warrant it. And especially was this true 
among the poor and illiterate. There was neither comfort nor 
certainty for them at any stage of the long trip. They were 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 113 

cooped in the filthy holds of slow sailing vessels, compelled to fur- 
nish and prepare their own food, and battle unaided with the hor- 
rors of sea-sickness. Small wonder it is that only brave spirits 

\ dared it. The Jew, however, rose to the requirements of the occa- 
sion then, as he always has. He triumphed over every obstacle. 

' He made his way to the seaboard through strange countries, and 
embarked among strangers who hated even the name of Jew. 
He survived the sufferings of the voyage, and with renewed 
hope and courage set his foot for the first time on free soil. 
For those who have not experienced it, it is impossible to 
properly appreciate the extent of the revolution made in his 
life by his emigration to America. He left behind him every- 
thing that was calculated to degrade him; he faced every 
opportunity to elevate himself. Accustomed at home to re- 
gard himself as socially and politically the inferior of those 
about him, he now found himself in an atmosphere of liberty 
and equality, and learned that neither race nor religion barred 
his way. He discovered here a field open to all alike, in which 
the highest patent of nobility was unsullied manhood. 

Such a change was worth all the dangers and privations 
endured to attain it, and which would not have been braved 
but for a consummation so precious. It was not a mere de- 
sire to attain wealth that induced this exodus from Europe. 
This is easily demonstrated. In England, France, Italy and 

* Turkey the majority of Jews were then and are now poorer 
in purse, and the opportunities for the acquisition of riches 
little, if any, better than in Russia, Austria, Germany and the 
Balkan provinces; yet we find that very few Jews have come 
to America or gone elsewhere from the countries first named, 
while from the latter there has been a steady stream. In Eng- 
land, France, Italy and Turkey a measurably humane disposi- 
tion has been exhibited towards the Hebrews and they have 
become attached as patriots to the countries wherein, if they 
may not rise to greatness, they are at least not driven to 
despair. In Russia, Germany, Austria and the Balkan prov- 

, : inces they have been subjected to all manner of indignities 
to degrade and persecute them, and, in consequence, they sought 



114 LE N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

for avenues of escape. These indignities explain the low stage 
to which the Jews, subjected to them, sunk. In no other way 
can we account for the difference between the Israelites in coun- 
tries where they enjoy some liberties and those in which they 
enjoy none. 

To guard against misconception it may be well to remark 
that not all the Jews who came to America, half a century ago, 
were from the countries in which the Jews were oppressed. 
Neither were those who came from the latter places, all ignorant 
and degraded. As a matter of fact, there were immigrants from 
all parts of the world, and not a few were distinguished for 
learning, character, and even occasionally for wealth. But this 
minority did not come because they were Jews. They came, 
as many others did for change, excitement, love of adventure, 
or the determination to improve even upon the conditions they 
left behind. It is not proposed to deal with individuals or small 
minorities. Neither shall I undertake to describe each phase of 
motive or character. What is sought is the mental and moral 
type of the Jews who came in considerable numbers to this coun- 
try something like fifty years since. 

Composite photography is employed to ascertain physical 
types by an extensive system of averages. In physical types the 
most frequently recurring and most prominent characteristics 
will impress themselves upon the typical result. In this delin- 
eation, likewise, the picture takes its form and color from the 
most frequently recurring and prominent characteristics of the 
European Jews who first came in numbers to America. 

The result is dismal enough, although not devoid of commend- 
able features. In it we find superstition, religious bigotry, cun- 
ning, blunted moral perceptions, rude manners, ignorance and 
almost a total absence of culture. On the other hand we discover ' 
thrift, energy, courage and hope, and underlying all the peculiarly . 
Jewish qualities of quick perception, frugality, temperance and 
the fullest complement of domestic virtues. Such was the Jew 
who fled from the narrow limits allowed him in Europe to make i 
a career amidst the boundless and countless opportunities that, 
opened to him here. His past fixed the goal of his ambition by 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 115 

comparison. He had been an inferior socially and politically. 
His political equality was granted by our constitution, and he 
resolved to attain social equality by the shortest route that his 
wit could discover. His course was determined alike by choice 
and by circumstances. He saw at a glance that this was a coun- 
try rich only in natural resources, and that to develop these cap- 
ital was indispensable. He saw further, that as we had no aris- 
tocracy founded on lineage or government regulation, that suc- 
cess in the absorbing employments of the people would create 
the society of the future. The development of the natural wealth 
of the country engrossed all attention, and he who should exercise 
the highest influence and wield the greatest power in this direc- 
tion would outstrip his neighbors in the race of life. Wealth 
was the avenue of power. In new countries this is usually the 
case, and ours was no exception. 

Circumstances best fitted him for a money-making career. 
In Europe either by law or custom, he had been allowed to 
pursue no other. He was unfitted for the learned professions or 
the tilling of the soil. He understood something of commercial 
principles and was an adept in mere trade. Accordingly he be- 
came a peddler and later a merchant. But the resolution to 
become rich did not carry itself into effect. To fulfil it taxed 
his energy, thrift and wit to their fullest capacity. Besides he 
labored under many disadvantages peculiar to himself. His 
dress, his manners, his language and his strict adherence to the 
forms of religion all impeded him. These impediments he re- 
moved as speedily as possible. He conformed to the dress and 
manners of the country, acquired sufficient of the language for 
the purposes of trade, and one by one ignored the religious 
ceremonies that proved inconvenient. When we consider that 
he had no social obligations, no political ambition, no extravagant 
personal habits, and that he was frugal, industrious and shrewd, 
we shall understand how readily he succeeded in his chosen ca- 
reer. His early success was fruitful of mischief. It changed the 
goal of his desires. He had sought wealth as "a stepping stone 
to higher things," but he became intoxicated by the charm of 
money getting until his ambition now grown gross by the food 



Il6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

on which it had fed, looked upon wealth itself, as its highest 
aspiration. He toiled and schemed only for money and he felt, 
if he did not exhibit, contempt for all occupations that did not 
lead to wealth. He identified riches with happiness and sought 
them as eagerly as ever the alchemist sought the elixir of life. 
Then well nigh perished that precious essence of the ideal that 
has ever pervaded the Jewish nature and emphasized its dif- 
ference from all others. It was this idealism that sustained the 
Jew amid the severest of his trials and to which he ever had 
resort for consolation. When driven to practice his religion in 
secret and therein find his only solace for sorrow, he drew upon 
his oriental imagination for a symbolism that appealed to his 
ideal emotions. Thus there had slowly but steadily accumu- 
lated for his observance a countless number of rites and cere- 
monies, which, originally introduced to satisfy his emotional 
nature, had come to be regarded as obligatory upon his con- 
science. Nothing saved many of these practices from being 
ludicrous, but the sincerity and earnestness of their observance. 
When we consider how sudden a revolution occurred in the lives 
of the first Jewish immigrants to America we shall better un- 
derstand some of its results. At no time has the history of the 
Jews been separable from the history of Judaism. Whether the 
connection between the doctrines of that ancient religion and 
the people to whom they were given, be divinely ordained and 
therefore absolute, or not, certain it is that thus far the race 
and the religion have been so fused, as it were, that none 
can say just where the one begins and the other leaves off. 
Judaism has always been not only a part of every Jew's life, 
but of every event in it. Thus it was an integral part of the 
thought, philosophy and education of those who came to this 
country until after they had become Americans. But no sooner 
had their minds quickened with the new civilization and their 
eyes opened to the new deliverance than an anti-climax oc- 
curred. Here was life, bustle, achievement; here was an open 
field for energy and ambition where the race was to the swift, 
and the battle to the strong. Time was too precious to devote 
to ceremonies that consumed the half of it almost, and thus 






DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 1 17 

trenched upon the opportunities for success. Besides, the views 
generated by the broad scope of the new career condemned one 
by one the rabbinical ordinances imposed as they were for ends 
that they had outlived. The logical process by which these hith- 
erto sacred obligations were laid aside, if not accurate was force- 
ful, quick and ruthless. No pause was indulged in to analyze the 
differences between essentials and non-essentials. Consistency 
was elevated above all other considerations, and having recon- 
ciled himself to a disregard of some part of his religion, the Jew 
deemed it due to consistency that he should ignore almost, if not 
all, of it. But this did not endure long. The immigrant, like the 
balance of mankind, was a social animal. He required for his 
happiness home, wife and children. Not for always could he con- 
tent himself with sleeping in barns and under hedgerows; not 
for always could he endure the half hidden contempt of his fel- 
lowmen without a longing for some sphere in which he was the 
peer of his fellows. Then arose the family relation, and the in- 
fluence of tfte mothers in Israel became apparent. It communi- 
cated itself to the home, and the heap of ashes which marked the 
ruins of his religion received repentant and longing glances from 
the husband and father. Not only this, but in his home where 
comfort prevailed there seemed a spectre of rebuke. In the still- 
ness of the night, at the festive board, at the bedside of the sick 
and dying, at births and marriages and burials, a voice that was 
storm-driven across seas uttered ominously in his ears the com- 
mand to "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may 
be long in the land." Nor did the voice cease when gifts were 
sent to aged parents to make the poverty that saddened their lives 
disappear. It continued to sound until at last when the restless 
heart cried out, "What is it I must do?" the voice changed to the 
tender accents of dying fathers and mothers wafted softly over 
the bosom of the deep : "Hear Oh, Israel the Eternal is our God, 
the Eternal is One." Honor us in loving the Lord "with all your 
heart and all your soul and all your might." Then amid the cold 
ashes of the discarded religion was sought the divine spark of 
truth that yielded not to the agencies that could destroy mere 
forms, and lo ! it was there radiant, vital and eternal. Thus was 



Il8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

saved on American soil the Judaism without which there can be 
no Jews. 

Its influence was soon apparent. Where it was possible syna- 
gogues were erected, benevolent societies organized and schools 
instituted. And when, because of differences in nationalities and 
shades of belief, discords arose in the house of God, the inventive 
mind of the Jew established a great society formed upon such 
broad principles that in respect of them no contention could arise. 
I cannot pause even to outline the history of the B'nai B'rith. It 
is unnecessary to do so here. I only refer to it to show that when 
the pioneer Jews were still earnestly engaged in making money 
they demonstrated their claim to the highest virtues by the grand 
efforts they made to elevate and enlighten their fellow-men and 
alleviate their sufferings on the broadest principles of humanity. 
There was much in the first generation that we will not find 
in the second. The first generation brought with it from Europe 
some qualities that have not been transmitted and it imperfectly 
acquired some that were born with the second. 

I have already sketched the type of the first generation at the 
time of the landing on American soil and in some respects the 
effect produced by contact with the new civilization. The picture 
would be wanting, however, in one of the essential features if I 
failed to give proper prominence to one effect of the change. 
The immigrant as a rule was scantily educated if at all, and not 
infrequently the entire sum of his learning did not extend beyond 
the Bible and the commentaries thereon. Beyond this he knew 
little except some general principles of trade and barter. He was 
unambitious in Europe to shine either as a scholar, artist or man 
of means, because as a scholar or artist he was practically denied 
a career without becoming an apostate, and to advertise his wealth 
was to invite plunder or confiscation. In Europe he had been 
inferior to every rank in society and the humility natural to his 
position had degenerated into servile deference to his fellow crea- 
tures. The sudden emancipation from such conditions was be- 
wildering. He exulted in his freedom to an extent that was 
rather ludicrous than offensive. He became pompous in the 
assertion of his equality #(th all men under the law and vulgar 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 119 

in the ostentatious display of the wealth he so quickly acquired. 
His house was furnished lavishly but with little taste, and he 
imitated without discriminating judgment, the indulgences rather 
than the essentials of polite society. Seeing society only on the 
surface he was excusable for appreciating only its gloss and when, 
as he thought, he had successfully acquired what he saw, he 
speedily claimed to be a gentleman. He wore good clothes, lived 
in a fine house, drove fine horses, frequented fashionable resorts, 
gambled and dissipated as he daily saw gentlemen do, and in truth 
believed himself one of the elect. His children were taught at 
home to dress well and spend money, and at expensive rather 
than efficient schools and under fashionable rather than com- 
petent masters acquired a desultory education without the benefit 
of parental direction. 

These children, who formed the second generation, grew up 
with uncertain feelings towards their elders. They had been 
taught to look with admiration to the polish rather than to the 
true metal of society. Their minds had been filled with an exag- 
gerated idea of the importance of wealth and an underestimate 
of the frugal methods by which it can alone be acquired with 
safety. They naturally knew the English language, and derisively 
laughed at the jargon of their seniors, and finally they were left 
either without a thorough understanding of their religion, or 
were so confused by the discords among theologians and the 
ignorance of their parents, that they looked upon religion with 
lofty unconcern or contempt. 

In the good results of early religious training, in the domestic 
virtues, in the faithful observance of the marriage vow, in the 
practice of temperance and in physical development the second 
generation was unquestionably behind the first. But on the 
other hand, the child was born on free soil and wore his freedom 
without effort; he was more manly and more scrupulous in his 
dealings with the world. He was better educated, more refined, 
more cultivated than his sire. His good clothes sat naturally 
upon him; he knew what to do with and in his fine house, and 
he learned that society makes polish, and that mere polish and 
glitter do not make society. Many of tl*m eschewed trade alto- 



120 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

gether, and devoted themselves to literature, science and art. 
They became actors, painters, musicians, lawyers, doctors and 
chemists. Indeed they made a vast stride forward from the 
position occupied by their immediate progenitors — without fully 
covering the ground, however, between the starting point and the 
goal. The second generation derided the vulgar claims of the 
first, without appreciating that in kind but not in degree it was 
guilty of a like presumption. But what of the third generation? 

The seed has been planted, the grain waves green in the 
fields — what will the harvest be? 

We are the husbandmen, and upon us rests in the largest 
measure the balance that shall be struck in the aftermath. 

The influences that operate on every plant began with crea- 
tion. Climatic conditions and changes, seismic disturbances, 
cyclones and tidal waves in ages long since forgotten, have all 
in turn contributed some factor in the destiny of each seed that 
is placed beneath the sod. But the immediate and almost con- 
trolling influence is the skill and energy of the farmer, who 
studies the surrounding circumstances for lessons of wisdom to 
overcome the almost numberless difficulties that occur between 
sowing and garnering. The little ones who play about our knees, 
who load our hearts with solicitude, yet lighten them of sorrows 
— they compose the third generation. They are the tender plants 
which we are charged with carrying to fruitful maturity. Upon 
their lives influences have been at work from remotest ages, but 
with us still rests the controlling force that shall shape their 
careers. 

The harvest will depend upon the husbandman; and of us 
it is thus spoken. Let us consider what we should aspire to do in 
the premises and how our aspirations may be realized. 

All parents whose natures are not abnormally corrupt, desire 
the success of their offspring — but few are agreed as to what is 
success. In the eyes of some it means wealth or power, or fame, 
or learning, or several or all of these combined. By a minority 
only, these are all but incidents in the careers of the young with 
which heaven has blessed them. To them wealth, power, fame 
and learning are glorious achievements indeed, but not the end 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 121 

upon which their lofty gaze is fixed. Their ambition is to make 
their children rise to the highest plane of manhood and woman- 
hood and deserve the praise which man and the favor which 
God bestows upon true gentility. And what is true gentility? 
It is to achieve prosperity by honorable effort, to attain power 
by the influence of spotless conduct, to gain fame by good works, 
to acquire wisdom by the study of nature and of nature's God, 
and above all to refine and elevate the spirit by thinking the pure 
rather than the corrupt and by doing always the good and never 
the evil. This it is to be the perfect gentleman or the perfect lady. 

The father who toils to lay up riches for his sons and daugh- 
ters and trains them to guard and increase his store, ignoring or 
slighting the nobler aims of life, performs a sorry service. He 
gives them the power to satisfy their carnal appetites, but denies 
them the ineffable sweets that are enjoyed even in poverty by 
those who lead the intellectual and ethical life. And what 
is power that is not based upon and guided by wisdom and love ; 
or fame that does not attach to nobility of soul ; or learning that 
leads not to wisdom, and the practice of virtue ? They are all but 
the outward trappings that at first dazzle the beholder only to 
become grotesque and hideous when closer inspection reveals the 
contrast with what is thus gaudily concealed. 

If you would make your children successful, train them to 
deserve success. If you would have them be rich, teach them not 
only how to acquire riches, but how to use them. If you would 
have them powerful, educate them to attain power for noble ends. 
If you would have them learned, let their learning be so achieved 
that it shall lead to the wisdom that so often lingers stubbornly 
behind the course of knowledge. If you would make them suc- 
cessful, you must teach them to be happy, and to be happy they 
must be honest, truthful, brave, upright, self-sacrificing and God 
fearing. In a word, to be happy they must be virtuous. This 
truth, though trite, cannot be too often repeated, for like most 
truths it passes unchallenged and unappreciated, until at last it 
dawns upon the mind that therein lies a treasure undiscovered 
before. 

How shall the lofty ideal which I have pictured be realized? 



122 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

What arts shall the husbandman employ to make the harvest 
bountiful and good? I answer you with a truth as trite as the 
one just mentioned — education. Educate the body, educate the 
mind, but above all educate the heart. I cannot present any 
system of education in this disquisition, but I venture to suggest 
that you become in some respects the teachers of your own chil- 
dren. Interest yourselves in their sports and pleasures. Take 
part in them and give them such direction and scope that will pro- 
mote healthy physical development and divert the young minds 
from defiling associations. Assist them in their studies and make 
their labors agreeable rather than irksome. Stimulate their am- 
bitions by rewards and overcome their discouragements with 
sympathy. Teach them by precept and example the nobility of 
virtue. Nourish the sentiment so natural in children for the 
true, the beautiful and good. Teach them self-denial, truthful- 
ness, honesty, courage, charity and piety. Let no incident, how- 
ever trivial, go by without making it leave upon their impres- 
sionable minds some lesson of wisdom or goodness. 

Is this asking too much of fathers who have the cares of busi- 
ness, and of mothers occupied by the duties of housekeeping? 
Perhaps so if the business or the house is to be set up as a fetich 
to which the little ones are offered as sacrifices. But if you pursue 
your occupation or keep your house for your children's sake, as 
you should, then whenever one must suffer, spare the children. 
Do not embellish a cage in which to imprison their natures ; do 
not feed their stomachs with rich food and keep their minds and 
hearts on starvation diet. 

To paint the first and second generation has been a compara- 
tively easy task. To point the way for the third has not been 
more difficult; but to foretell its fate would require the gift of 
prophecy. I am, however, full of hope. Under normal or favor- 
able conditions the Jews have always advanced, and I anticipate 
no exception here. The second generation has, in many material 
respects, improved vastly on the first, and if we can only come 
to see how far we are below the standard we should aspire to, 
we will be better equipped to advance our children beyond our- 
selves. We are quick enough to recognize the difference between 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN JEW. 123 

ourselves and Our immediate predecessors; but with that self- 
complacency so common to all mortals, we are slow to find linger- 
ing in us many of the shortcomings of our ancestors, not to men- 
tion those that have been derived from our environments, not in- 
herited from our forefathers. If you would do your full duty 
to your children, first learn to what extent you have failed in your 
duty to yourself. Sum up your own qualities of head and heart, 
and estimate in what degree you would have your children sur- 
pass you. Nor is this all. Study, in the light of your great re- 
sponsibilities, how you should demean yourself in order to bear 

i them with credit. Remember that children are imitative. Re- 
member that they will copy your faults as well as your virtues. 
If you are indifferent about your religion, they, too, will be 
indifferent, and without religion you cannot teach the only char- 
acter of morality worthy of respect. You may, indeed, without 
religion teach honesty by pointing to the prison as the destiny 

, of thieves. You may teach regard for human life by taking 
your children to a hanging; but if you would make them love 
the right for the sake of the right, and not merely eschew the 
wrong from fear of consequences, then you must instil into their 
young minds and hearts the great principles underlying all re- 
ligions and furnished to them all by the Jews. Remember, too, 
that if you would guard your children against race prejudice, you 
and they must rise superior to it. You can no more escape 
bigotry by shrinking from Jewish designations, habits, customs, 
or religious practices than the ostrich can escape his pursuers 
by burying his head in the sand. Be brave and teach your chil- 
dren courage. Do not obtrude your race or religion upon public 
notice, but never withdraw them from the eye of friend or foe. 
They are here, parts of yourself, and you stamp yourself an 
inferior whenever you shrink from the name or responsibilities 
of your people or your creed. Nothing excites such contempt 
and hatred as disloyalty. The military leader who profits by the 
treachery of an enemy, while loving the treason despises the 
traitor. It is true in every relation of life. The renegade is ever 

^ abhorred. The renegade Jew is despised by all broad-minded 



124 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Gentiles and Jews for his disloyalty, while the fanatics who 
induce his apostasy contemn him for having once been a Jew. 

But there exists no occasion to warn Jews against apostasy. 
It is not conversion to other religions so much as indifference to 
our own that gives us pause. I foresee, however, a better era 
in respect of this. The dissensions raging among theologians 
are being settled or settling themselves. The mists are lifting 
from the minds of the laymen, and they will rescue the essentials 
of Judaism from the ruins made by mere destructionists. Out 
of the chaos that reigns there will emerge the vital principles and 
practices that have always made Judaism not only a great system 
of philosophy, but also a matchless religion. See to it that you 
do your part and direct aright the efforts of your children. Take 
pride in your people and be a pride unto them. Do not despise 
them lest you be despised of all men. Elevate your race through 
yourself and your offspring, and look forward with hungry 
ambition to the hour when it shall be recognized as a proud 
distinction to be one of the chosen people. That hour, I con- 
fidently believe, can be and will be realized in America. With 
all circumstances in favor of us, and native qualities that are 
unrivalled, we shall progress surely upward from what we are 
to what we should be, as rapidly as we have risen from what we 
were to what we are. This is the mission of our children and our 
children's children, and they, if not we, shall live to see the time 
when, in the eyes of all men, no epitaph will contain such appar- 
ent and eloquent eulogy as the brief announcement, "Here sleeps 
a true son of Israel." To deserve such lofty praise is greater 
than to wear by right the richest crown that ever rested on a 
royal head. 



: 



THE AMERICAN JEW. 

Synopsis of address at a banquet given in honor of D. G. L. No. 
7, I. O. B. B. at New Orleans, La. 

It is a singular term. It carries with it no political associa- 
tion. When the American is found abroad and the estimate is 
made of him by others, he stands as a representative of the 
country, which is a kindergarten of liberty for all the world ; he 
exemplifies the spirit meant by Grover Cleveland when he said, 
in opening the "World's Fair," that this was the country which 
made men. Gladstone paid tribute to the country of 3,000,000 
men which framed an organic law to withstand the test of time, 
and said it must have been an inspiration from God. A civiliza- 
tion has been builded here, which despite the sneers of Europe, 
has brought all nations to the feet of Columbia paying tribute. 
This inestimable liberty should be guarded against anything 
which might impair its beauty and its strength. It is a country 
of refuge, but those who seek refuge here must not only eat of 
the bread of America, but partake also of American doctrines. 
He is proud of being an American, but he has another lineage, 
not inconsistent with the other, of which he was equally proud. 
If there was inspiration in the American constitution, how much 
more inspiration must there have been in the code written 
thousands of years ago, only a few hundred words, which fitted 
then, has never failed to fit, and will fit for all time. The Jew 
gave the Decalogue as the foundation of civilization. 

The Jew is the nobleman of all time, whose lineage goes back 
before written history to traditions, which all men admit be- 
cause all men know them to be true. But today he claims Amer- 
ican citizenship as his proudest title, next only to that of 
"American Jew." Four hundred years ago the Jews were ex- 

125 



126 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

pelled from Spain. Four hundred years ago America was dis- 
covered, and here he has found freedom of conscience and of 
action. He has become an American citizen and intends to 
remain one, claiming of the blessed mother of liberty those 
blessings bestowed by her upon those who deserve it. He of- 
fered to her the testimonial of obedience to law and charity ir- 
respective of creed. When the persecuted Jew comes to these 
shores the Jews already here could promise that he would be- 
come no burden, breed no disorder, renounce all allegiance to 
other countries and devote himself to acquiring the principle of 
citizenship. The children the members had seen today, were the 
hostages that the Jews would rear, good citizens: the race and 
the religion would never become objects of barter. 

The speaker contrasted the expulsion of the Jews from Russia 
and their reception in America, and they have been casting aside 
their disability, so as also to deserve the title of the "American 
Jew." He called attention to the twin article in the North 
American Review upon the "Sweating" system, which spoke of 
the victory won in New York. It was because the laborers 
were Jews, Russian Jews> and the article said that it was because 
of their "dignity of endurance and courage to abide by the law" 
that they won their fight against capital. He repeated his 
own experiences with the immigrants, who were given the 
declaration of independence and the American constitution 
translated into their jargon. A week later they returned 
with questions as to certain points in the constitution, 
showing that they had really begun the study of the American 
doctrine. There is talk of a German vote, and an Irish vote, 
but never of a Jewish vote. Judaism was a faith which would 
not suffer the indignity of political speculation. New York is 
a close state and in 1896 there will be 60,000 Jewish votes in 
New York City. If manipulated as a whole it might settle the 
question of the presidency, but such a matter would be as im- 
possible as quenching the sun with a glass of water. The Baron 
Hirsch relief committee is made up of men prominent in both 
political parties, and if one of them were to attempt such a 
thing he would be ostracized from his fellows and his plan de- 



THE AMERICAN JEW. 12/ 

stroyed. The Jewish people is a people capable of learning 
something and forgetting much, taking care of the poor, build- 
ing up such structures as this asylum, making new citizens of 
outcast orphans, making them men for soldiers and citizens, and 
women for wives, and they can hurl back with defiance the 
charge of Chandler that they are not entitled to become Ameri- 
can citizens. 

The future should be judged by the past. The Jews of today 
came here fifty years ago much the same as the Russian refugees, 
and have done much for themselves and their country. They 
have upheld commerce on land and sea, promoted science and 
art, advanced in literature and have been loyal to the common- 
wealth in peace and in war. Somebody said the Jew was not a 
soldier. When the roll was called, more Jews were found on 
the side of the Confederacy alone than the proportion of Jews 
to the population of the entire country. If the men on either 
side were asked they would say that they met Jews doing duty 
in the face of danger. There was nothing to be ashamed of 
in the record, and he prophesied that the handful of American 
Jews here today with their hands uplifted by their American 
co-workers of other faiths, would lead to the same place the Rus- 
sian outcast, so that when the enemies of the Jews went upon 
the hilltops and looked upon the industrious Jewish emigrants 
in the fertile valleys below they would exclaim, "How beautiful 
are thy tents, Oh, Jacob ; thy tabernacles, Oh Israel !" 



ORGANIZED CHARITIES. 

Address delivered by Mr. Leo. N. Levi at the Annual Meeting 
of the United Hebrew Charities. 

Certainly there is no greater cause than that which has 
brought us together here to-night, and I am impressed with the 
conviction that no man should allow the promotion of that cause 
to suffer in the slightest degree by any lust for glory or fame. 
And I believe that the few thoughts that I have to express will be 
more effective if, in an informal way, they come to you, not as 
the utterances of some wiseacre speaking downward from the 
platform, but as the thoughts of a co-worker in the ranks, ad- 
dressed to his co-workers, with the design to provoke thought 
and excite discussion, in order to reach the truth. This cause, 
in which we are enlisted requires science rather than art; ideas 
more than words; and ideas only as impulses to achievement. 

I say it calls for science rather than art, because there is no 
department of human activity that requires more to be reduced 
to a scientific basis than the administration of charity. It has 
been said here to-night incidentally that it is no longer an open 
question that charity should be organized; but I cannot concede 
the accuracy of the statement when I am confronted as I have 
been, here and everywhere else throughout this country, with the 
short list of subscribers to organized charities. If the conviction 
that charity should only be administered through organization 
were general and widespread, we could only account for the 
paucity of subscribers by assuming the want of a charitable 
impulse among our co-religionists. It is not true that that im- 
pulse is wanting. If anything, it exists too strongly, but is too 
little subject to the control of reason. There is too much of that 
indiscriminate personal benefaction, which has been so aptly 
termed by Bishop Potter "the help that hurts." 
128 



ORGANIZED CHARITIES. I2g 

It is necessary, therefore, for this and kindred organizations 
not to assume that it is the consensus of opinion that charity 
should be administered only through organization. 

Let me assure you, from a wide experience, that it is yet 
necessary to do missionary work in that direction, and to educate 
the people, and the whole people, to a perfect understanding that 
charity has two aspects ; one emotional, the other intellectual. It 
must proceed from an emotional impulse to do good, it must be 
directed by an intellectual process that will guarantee the thing 
desired. And there are still further lessons, the fruit of which 
must be carried into effect, not only in individual good work, 
but in corporate good work. Among such lessons is, that all 
charity must proceed along lines that take no account of self; 
that the pleasure of the giver, the fame of the giver, the rewards 
of the giver, shall receive no consideration at all, or if any, in a 
minor degree; that the great desideratum is effectiveness in the 
interest of those in whose behalf charity is exhorted. 

I hope I make that clear. I would I had the power to make 
it as clear as it appears to me, that if there be merit in the charity 
that is done for the pleasure that is extracted from it by the 
giver, it is not possessed of that character of loftiness, of purity, 
which attaches to charity that takes no account of self, that looks 
not for the thrill of pleasure when the tear is dried and the groan 
is stilled, but is done in response to that small still voice of con- 
science embodied in our religion from time immemorial, that 
from him who hath a surplus there shall come to him who hath 
not, the tithe that is in payment of a debt. I read the other day 
in the list of contributors to this organization the initials of 
some one unknown, "in payment of my tithe," and it excited in 
me a thrill of admiration. I looked forward then, as I do now, 
to the time when I may grasp the hand that penned those initials, 
and say I have found one man who has avowedly done his 
charity as the payment of an obligation, recognizing it as a duty. 

I have been told by my learned friends of the cloth — and I 
always get my religious and biblical learning at second hand 
from them — that there is no Hebrew word for charity, but that 
the word we use implies righteousness, signifying that whoever 



I3O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

possesses more than a sufficiency for his own needs is in justice 
bound to assist those who have not sufficient; that a man in 
respect to his surplus has a trust, and he is not at liberty to 
dispose of that trust according to his liking, but only as befits the 
welfare of the beneficiaries of the trust. 

And so I have said before, and I say now, that a charity ill- 
bestowed is a sin, for the bestowal of alms upon one who is un- 
worthy is the corresponding denial of charity to one who is not. 
And it shall be no sufficient excuse for any man to say, "I was 
governed by a good intention." Your duty requires, not only 
that your intention must be good, but that your intelligence must 
be good ; and if it be not sufficient to solve the problem, turn over 
your contribution to those who are wiser than you. If these 
lessons be taught, and taught intelligently to the people, there 
will come many good results, not only in that we shall minimize 
the "help that hurts," but in that we shall magnify the help that 
helps, and we will strengthen the organizations that are inaugu- 
rated and conducted along scientific lines. 

I purposely use the word scientific. It has been used here 
to-night repeatedly in the interesting reports read, as if the work 
that is being performed in the field of charity had already reached 
a high scientific plane. I do not want to quarrel with anybody 
who holds to that view, but for myself, I think it does better credit 
to our intelligence to confess we are in the initial stages of that 
science. I believe my statement will not be challenged when I 
say that charity in this day is a branch of political economy, and, 
I want to add, that, in my opinion, political economy is nothing 
but common sense applied to big operations. How far have we 
progressed in the development of that science? Be it understood 
that it is not the creation of any one man's brain, but the birth of 
experience; that it has been extracted from the happenings that 
come under our daily ken. 

Scientific charity is of recent Birth. Let us study our diffi- 
culties rather than our triumphs to the end that the triumphs of 
the future will surpass the triumphs of the past. 

I referred to the fact that the list of regular contributors to 
organized charity is a very short one. I am well advised of the 



ORGANIZED CHARITIES. ng 

coitions elsewhere and I have learned that the conditions here 
are not d, s.mdar. If you take into consideration the fact that 
but a small percentage of the population is in need of charity 

Zr And T that a ^ T^ PerCent3ge is able t0 °^ 
Chan y. And .f you compare the number who are able to bestow 

chanty w.th the number who bestow it, through an organization, 
you w.U be amazed and shocked at the inevitable conclusion that 
only a small percentage of our people do charity. Perhaps this 
evil condmon anses from the want of co-operation and sympathy 
clT, r COmm0nIy kn ° Wn aS the bette <*« and those 

w^Tdo^Tb 3 ;'? 6 lower dass of our ^ a disti »<*°° 

wluch I do not thmk I am too critical when I say is largely de- 
pendent upon that legend by which we indicate the unit of value. 
Ihe result of that want of co-operation and sympathy is that the 

mL7T u ma " in m ° deSt dra ™*»nces-does not feel 
obhged to give h,s rmte to the alleviation of want in others, and a 
greater burden ,s unposed upon the rich. And this is evil in 
more ways than one. It is evil in that when the burden becomes 
too great, recalatrancy follows. It is evil in this that if our poor 
or our people in modest circumstances are not actively engaged 
m the adrmmstration of charities to which they contribute, they 
are demed the uplifting influence of benefaction, to him who 
bestows. And the whole community is denied the benefit of their 
su scnpfon their practical assistance, their surveillance \nZ 
very dtstncts where we suffer most from imposition and chi- 
winery. 

tm^l JUd f? e , nt iS ' ' hat eTC " &OUeh h ^Is trouble, untold 
rouble and I know ,t will, no effort should be spared to make 

fte entire commumty, rich and poor-each according to his 

m ans-contnbute to the alleviation of suffering and want, so 
hat whatever our differences in religion, in politics, in social 

stendmg m wealth, in culture, or refinement, in the doing of 

Tol a T7,/ n§ '° thC meaSUre ° f his P° wer > «*•* should 
be one level platform upon which every Jew can stand. And 

there w,ll flow from that union of effort the ultimate and finest 

achievement of science in charity which has been we., exempted 

■n th,s great metropolis by the organization whose silver jubilee 



I3 2 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

we are assembled to celebrate to-night. Because, when all the 
people are working to a common end, there will be one ideal in 
charity work which has always been so far and yet so dear, and 
that is a scientific administration of Jewish charities modeled 
upon a high form of government. 

The need for the United Hebrew Charities brought it into 
existence, and that need was, the evils that preceded it. 

The report that was read here to-night, like the report of 
every organized charity I have ever been made familiar with, 
contained a plea for funds, a plea for moral support, a plea for 
personal activity, and it should always be so — it indicates a 
healthy condition. But let me call your attention to this : When 
the list of subscribers to all these institutions is limited in num- 
bers, and burdens come to a point when the back cannot stand an 
additional pound of weight, it is wise to consider if we cannot do 
that which is most required and most urgent first. And that can 
only be done by having a parliament or clearing house. In a 
well organized government, at the beginning of every fiscal 
period a budget is made in which there must be wise distribution 
of the revenues to the various departments thereof, so that the 
most important shall not suffer by pampering the less important. 
That is the highest expression of statesmanship. Shall we not 
in the administration of our charities consider what revenues we 
can expect to come from our people, and in what avenues these 
revenues should be directed? Herein lies the highest essential 
and highest strength of your organization ; to demand the help 
of every man, woman, and child in this community who has any- 
thing to give in the way of money, sympathy or effort in the 
cause of charity. 

With the dissipation of effort and division of energies — and 
traveling sometimes along parallel lines and thus wasting energies 
that should have been directed otherwise — there come troubles 
that only an intelligent clearing house such as this can avoid. 
That idea can be extended still further and should be to the end 
that we should not furnish niches of fame for ambitious men by 
unnecessarily multiplying organizations. We should conserve 



ORGANIZED CHARITIES. I33 

our energies and direct them straight at the target of want. And 
how can that be done? 

To bring that about let us not refuse to go into associations 
that are distasteful to us. Let me assure you that no great good 
is accomplished in anything unless sacrifice precedes its achieve- 
ment. And if it becomes necessary to communicate with those 
below you in the social scale to bring about their co-operation in 
money, time, in sympathy, and in effort, I say you owe that 
sacrifice to the poor and suffering as well as the money you un- 
grudgingly give. There is nothing so becoming the lofty station 
as humility, just as nothing so becomes the lowly station as pride. 
If those who by the blessing of Providence have reached a high 
plane will stoop in charity to those on a lower plane, those on the 
lower plane will be ambitious to reach a higher plane themselves. 
And in this we can make charity as noble and effective as when 
we give a crust of bread to the hungry or clothe the naked. 

I am admonished by the lateness of the hour that I must not 
linger longer upon a subject so dear to me and upon which at a 
more appropriate season I hope to deliver the message I have 
in mind. The lesson to be learned, is in brief, that we should 
ail learn and teach, that we are not paying our debts, by in- 
discriminately bestowing charity, that we should avail ourselves 
of the opportunities that present themselves in a long established, 
well conducted and absolutely needed institution, and especially 
in one that exercises a wholesome supervisory influence over all 
and accomplishes much against those evils the prevalence of 
which brought this institution into being. 

These are lessons to be learned from this occasion, more 
valuable than the thrill of pleasure that follows a compliment, 
more valuable because they will lead to something good to be 
accomplished in the future, rather than to the ecstatic contempla- 
tion of something done in the past. I do not appeal to you to 
carry it to your homes and to your hearts. I demand it, not in 
my name, not in the name of this organization. I demand it 
in your name, as the duty that you owe to yourselves, the duty 
that you inherited from your ancestors, the "noblesse oblige" of 
the Jews. 



LET WOMAN WITNESS. 

History is replete with occasions when, because of unique 
conditions a commonplace utterance has made an enduring im- 
pression; when commonplace men became effective agents for 
good. The studied words of the wise often fall like cinders in 
a marsh, expiring as they fall ; while sometimes the rude ex- 
pressions of a clown, though containing but a spark of truth, 
start a conflagration. In olden times the birth of a male child 
to a Jewish mother was dignified by the remote possibility that 
he might prove to be the Messiah. 

These observations are offered by way of apology for ventur- 
ing, even in the most unpretentious way, to discuss a religious 
theme in public. As a rule such discussion should be left to those 
specially fitted therefor. In departing from that rule, I do so 
with misgivings, yet hopeful that I may, in a small way, pro- 
mote a great cause by making a plea for Religion. Not an 
argument, not an apology, not a defense, but a plea. I do not 
venture on the domain of either science or theology, for of these 
it may be truly said "fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 
It however requires neither scientist or theologian to see how 
pervasive are immorality and crime, and to measure these by 
the decadence of religion. It was in former generations, if it 
is not now, accepted as a current truth, that morality and right- 
eousness followed always in the wake of education. It was as- 
sumed that when the windows of the intellect were opened to 
the light of knowledge, the warmth of virtue would enter the 
soul. But there has come a disillusionment. Open windows 
admit both light and warmth at times, but as often if not oftener, 
sacrifice warmth for light. The world has grown in enlighten- 
ment faster than in virtue; indeed one is almost driven at times 
to the gloomy conviction that virtue abounds most where en- 
lightenment sheds but feeble rays. 

134 



LET WOMAN WITNESS. 1 35 

I should be unwilling to advance that as a deliberate con- 
viction, but without misgivings I assert that enlightenment with- 
out religion is a factitious and unstable support for morality. 

It is safe to say that in the decalogue is to be found a com- 
prehensive moral code; certainly so, if it be supplemented with 
the Mosaic command "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
The civilization that is not based on that code is not sound; 
unless they draw therefrom their inspiration, manhood is not at 
once stalwart. And gentle womanhood is not free and pure. 

And what if anything can make that code the controlling 
influence upon conduct? 

The skeptic will answer that the fear of public opinion and 
of public law alone controls the conduct of those who are not 
governed by superstitious fears; or that the mind of man has 
painfully and slowly spelled out the code, as the dictate of wis- 
dom, supported by reason and sanctioned by almost universal 
acceptance. 

The religious person even though not pious will say that the 
code ought, of right, and in fact does, truly enter into life be- 
cause it is the Divine Law. To this last view I hold. Religion 
occupies different planes, and to reach the highest one must 
be devout and pious, as well as religious ; but the religious spirit 
abides in the hearts and is reflected in the lives of many who, 
if not pious and devout, esteem themselves, not more, but less, 
on that account. For the purposes of this consideration it is 
not important to draw fine distinctions between grades of loyalty 
to religion. What I insist on is, that unless virtue is regarded 
as the mandate of God, its practice cannot be widespread, per- 
sistent or enduring. However well we fortify ourselves against 
temptations, the enemy will break through at times, but when 
Faith in Heaven is not among the defenders, then is resistance 
weak indeed. A man cannot exist without air, food and water ; 
he cannot develop his physical powers without exercise. This 
is true now and it always has been. Why? The answer of 
science is that the law of man's being so decrees — but this is 
but another method of saying because it is the will of God. 
Man does not reach his true moral development except by 



I36 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

observing the code to which I have adverted. He never has. 
Why? Again without circumlocution the answer is because it 
is the Law of God. Man never has attained anything like even 
an approximate observance of that code, save under the influence 
of a religion which recognized a Supreme Power possessed of 
Infinite attributes, making and revealing laws which as far as 
understood were believed to be perfect, and whether understood 
or not were accepted as authoritative. 

If this statement be true, it furnishes an irresistible argument 
that religion is a necessity of man's moral being and therefore 
a Divine Law. 

I assume that no one will question the validity of the moral 
code contained in the ten commandments and the golden rule 
of Moses. Men differ as to its origin, but not as to its merit. 

Whence does it derive its sanction? Is it from common 
consent? Or to express the same thought differently, from 
public opinion? If so, this public opinion makes the code moral, 
and can also unmake it. It follows that it is not immoral to 
be a polygamist in Turkey ; it was not immoral to steal in Sparta ; 
it was not immoral to sacrifice human life to public sport in 
Rome ; to burn Jews at the stake in the Middle Ages. 

On the other hand, this code if always recognized and ac- 
cepted by public opinion, is a remarkable exception, for all other 
mere creations of the human mind are constantly being modified 
or altered. If this code has escaped the thirst for change it is 
because it has the same authority behind it which makes food, 
air and water necessities of life. Men may quarrel about the 
origin of the law, but when the law itself is assailed the assault 
is led and followed only by mental or moral perverts. 

The same argument applies to the suggestion that human 
law requires observance of the salient features of this code, and 
human government enforces it. This suggestion is not more 
than fractionally true and even if it were wholly so, what be- 
comes of the code if governmental law comes in opposition 
thereto? If England, Germany, France and the United States 
should unite in passing laws to legalize theft, perjury, adultery 
and murder, would it be less wrong to commit these sins than 



LET WOMAN WITNESS. 137 

it is now? Nay! if all the world should unite in resolutions 
and laws, that these things were virtues instead of wrongs, 
would their moral nature change by reason of such resolutions 
and laws? And if not, why not? Because the Right and the 
Wrong are not measured by what Man says or does or thinks 
about them. Men may weave webs of words and cloud the sub- 
ject, but in the end the mind cannot escape the conclusion that 
unless it be because God commands, there is no more inherent 
wrong in theft, perjury, adultery or murder, than in smuggling 
or carrying on a business without a license. 

The virtue that has no higher inspiration than fear of the 
law or public opinion, is not entitled to the name. The same 
may be said of the virtue that is based only on considerations 
of policy. Whenever subjected to a crucial test it fails and 
proves itself a counterfeit. 

It is difficult if not unfair to support this proposition by 
comparison of one nation with another, or of men differently 
situated. The superiority of one or the inferiority of another 
may be attributable to other conditions. But if we find people 
similarly situated, having the same environment, enjoying com- 
mon joys, and suffering common sorrows, and discover marked 
differences in their moral qualities, we may also discover evi- 
dence for or against the influence of Religion or Morality. And 
so I call Woman to witness. 

Women are not inherently better or worse than men. The 
savage woman is as cruel and ferocious as her mate and submits 
to his rule, not upon principle, but in deference only to his 
superior physical strength. The women of Greece compared 
indifferently with the men. They were regarded and treated 
as inferiors, esteemed chiefly for their physical charms. Aspasia 
shines forth as perhaps the greatest of Greek women and her 
claim to greatness must be confined to her beauty and intellect 
and cannot be extended to her virtues. The women of Rome 
devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure in its most odious 
aspects. In the circus they looked on brutal and indecent sports 
with unflinching eyes, and to the questioning glance of the 
triumphant gladiator made answer with the thumb sign of death. 



I38 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

In the Saturnalia and Lupanarium the noblest dames of Rome 
were chief actors, losing no caste by engaging in public de- 
bauches, which would now be suppressed by law in even a semi- 
civilized country. Patrician ladies whose husbands were heads 
of government, commanders of armies, judges, painters, poets 
and scholars — the very cream of society, paraded their own 
iniquity and sneered at the eccentric univirae. 

In Paris during the 18th century the upper classes set aside 
the controlling influence of Religion, and in the decadence which 
followed the women went to greater lengths than the men. In 
intrigue, treachery, deception, openly scandalous conduct, and 
even crime, the women were willing partners or rivals of the 
men. It is needless to multiply historical citations to prove that 
when neither sex is restrained from wrong-doing by Religion, 
the women become at least as wicked as the men. 

I think it equally true that when men and women are alike 
influenced by Religion, the virtues of men compare favorably 
with those of the gentler sex. The truly religious man is as 
well fortified against temptation as is his fair sister, and in 
honor, fortitude, gentleness and mercy testifies to the uplifting 
influence which makes him fearless of men and fearful of God. 

But in this age the sexes are not equally influenced by Re- 
ligion. The men are neither as pious or as religious as the 
women. As a rule they do not attend divine services, they do 
not pray or worship in public or private. So engrossed are they 
by the cares of business that they devote no time or thought to 
the relations between themselves and their Creator. If they 
affiliate with churches it is too often in a perfunctory way and 
because it is still regarded as good form. Not only is this all 
true, but beyond this is the deplorable fact that men commonly 
sneer at religion and deride it as a lot of superstitious humbug, 
fit only for women and children. And strangely enough they 
as a rule are quite content to subject their women and children 
to the very humbug which they regard as noxious. 

On the other hand if the women of this age are not as a 
rule religious, they are not indifferent to or contemptuous of it. 
They do not decry it or speak of it save with respectful defer- 



LET WOMAN WITNESS. 139 

ence. They frequently if not regularly attend worship, and al- 
most unfailingly bring themselves in touch with their Maker 
by prayer. 

If these premises be correct, the relative virtues of the sexes 
will indicate if not measure the power of Religion. To that 
power, working for the glorification of God and the betterment 
of mankind, let Woman witness. 

Recur to the commandments and compare our women with 
our men. She, as a rule, is devout. She does not blaspheme. 
She does not commit deeds of violence. She does not bear false 
witness. She is honest. She is chaste. She is a good daughter, 
a faithful wife, a self-sacrificing mother. She is compassionate 
and merciful. She softens pain and solaces grief. She delights 
in good deeds. With the graces of her heart she makes gentle 
what is savage in man and leads her offspring from what is 
debasing to what is pure. She is strong in her virtues and 
trusted on account thereof. 

And what of the men? Can it be said of them that in like 
degree with women of the same social station, they are free of 
the sins and shortcomings which denote unrighteousness? Are 
they as clear in speech and thought, as truthful and honest 
in deeds, as loyal, as brave in suffering, as resigned in sorrow, 
as tender to the afflicted, as merciful to the downcast, as true to 
their domestic obligations? 

Who can doubt the answer to such questions? 

From every Judge on the Bench, from every officer of jus- 
tice, from every minister of the gospel, from every observer and 
student of our civilization there must come the same testimony, 
that in morals, in the sweetness and light of human nature, our 
women are on a higher plane than our men. 

Our women are in a measure free; our men are in a bondage 
self-imposed. 

The exactions of a bizarre life, the pace that kills, the mad 
rush for wealth, the cringing to greater power and the oppres- 
sion of weakness, are links in the chains with which the modern 
man has fettered himself. Manacled as he is, his nature shrivels 



140 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

and hardens. He is becoming more and more mind and matter, 
and less and less, heart and soul. 

That women partake in a measure of his sordid appetites 
and aspirations is not surprising. She could not escape alto- 
gether the corrupting and corroding influence of such associa- 
tion. That she has not become as bad as the men, is due only 
to the fact that she has kept at least a low light burning on the 
altar. From it she draws hope, courage and inspiration. 
By it she learns that there is something in life besides, 
and better than power, riches or fame. It teaches her humility 
instead of pride ; deference instead of arrogance ; resignation 
instead of revolt. There is for her more wealth in her Bible 
than in her bank book; more power in the love of friends than 
in the fear of enemies; more glory in an approving conscience 
than in the plaudits of the multitude. 

It would be an exaggeration to claim all this for all or even 
the majority of women. The ideal is seldom attained and even 
those who strive hardest to attain it exhibit infirmities of char- 
acter. But I do claim with confidence that the lofty ideals are 
appreciated, studied, aspired to and striven for with fidelity, 
persistency and success chiefly by those who are Religious. To 
this let woman witness. 

And now what shall we deduce from the argument. The 
reciprocal influences exerted by the sexes on each other make 
for good and for evil. Doubtless the religious tendency of 
women exercises a salutary effect on men and conversely the 
worldliness of men operates to lower the tone of woman's finer 
nature. If men would but recognize the merits of Religion 
and refrain from assailing it, it would be less difficult for women 
to uphold it; if women would more aggressively stand for Re- 
ligion, men would not only cease their assaults but would more 
generally come under its influence. If men wish to encourage 
the highest and best qualities of the wife, the mother, the daugh- 
ter and the son, they must encourage these to be religious. If 
the women wish their husbands to be models for their sons and 
their sons to follow in the footsteps of worthy sires, they must 
lead them to prayer. 



LET WOMAN WITNESS. I4I 

Now it is, as in the past it has been, the mission of women 
to lead their little ones to the altar, there to learn to know, to 
love and to obey their Creator. Let them also break down de- 
rision and contempt and by sweet persuasion lead their husbands 
and brothers too. Her power to do this will be denied or ridi- 
culed. But what of that? Time was when men gravely dis- 
puted as to whether women had souls. Only in recent centuries 
has she been looked upon as anything but a superior chattel. 
She was not esteemed worthy to think on serious subjects or 
pursue bread-winning avocations. She has proven her power 
against tremendous odds. She will in the future continue to 
testify in her own behalf. 

In the past she has struggled to make herself man's equal. 
She has in morals so far surpassed him, that her next great 
mission is to make manJier equal. This is the demand upon her 
powers. That she is equal to the task I have no doubt she 
will give abundant testimony. 



ADDRESS OF LEO N. LEVI AT THE LAYING 

OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE NEW 

JEWISH WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS* 

HOME AT NEW ORLEANS, 1886. 

My Friends: 

We are making history today. We are performing the initial 
act in the erection of a structure that I trust, and confidently 
believe, will endure in strength and usefulness long after we 
shall have surrendered the burdens of this life, to assume the 
unknown responsibilities of another existence. 

The history of an age can only be correctly written during the 
ages that follow when the pen of the historian is free from con- 
temporary passion or bias. Our age can claim no immunity 
from the operation of this general and universally accepted rule. 
The true estimate of our time is in the future and we can only 
speculate on the verdict which will be rendered by the generations 
to follow us. What will that verdict be? 

I am no pessimist, but I cannot overcome the conviction that 
mingled with the vast progress of our time, there will be found 
elements of retrogression and decay. We have seen, it is true, 
the invention of the steam engine, the telegraph, the improved 
printing press, the railroad and a thousand other contributors 
to man's comfort, but we must not be blind to the fact that we 
have also produced the most destructive agencies ever known and 
that their abuse is not subject to control. Moreover, if we have 
rapid transit and quick communication, free education and cheap 
literature, we have also increasing international complications, 
immense public expenditures, heavy taxation, popular discontent, 
agrarian agitation and the ever threatening commune. 

If wealth has increased, it has become unhappily distributed 
as to make a few powerful and overbearing, while the multitude 
grown desperate in suffering, turn to anarchy as a relief from 
142 



LAYING OF CORNER STONE I43 

a condition that they despair of otherwise alleviating. The his- 
torian who shall write of our times will overlook none of these 
factors and we may well fear the judgment they will induce. May 
it not be, that in our progress, we have held the torch of truth so 
close to nature's face that we have burned away her fairest fea- 
tures? But if there be much evil to chronicle there shall not 
be wanting material for bright pages in the narrative. In mak- 
ing up the history of ancient peoples, we rely not upon the written 
evidence of events, manners, thoughts and character, but we look 
as well to monuments, public buildings, architecture in its various 
forms, and to a vast number of other sources that silently but un- 
erringly expound the truth. The pyramids of Egypt, the Acrop- 
olis at Athens, the Coliseum at Rome themselves speak history, in 
mute but impressive eloquence. The future will treat the present 
as we do the past, and I can fancy in the remote ages to come, 
when as the result of revolutions which we cannot now foresee, 
all the conditions of our present civilization have been radically 
changed, the historian will resort to such materials to make up 
his verdict on our times. My friends, we are building a monu- 
ment that shall serve him and us in that hour. 

If the gaudy palaces of the rich shall tell of vice and pleasure 
indulged at the price of human misery, there shall also be found 
with the impress of this age upon their crumbling and moss-cov- 
ered walls unnumbered sanctuaries to speak of a charitable people, 
offering tribute to the God of mercy. Such monuments are every- 
where among us. Throughout the length and breadth of this our 
common country eleemosynary institutions of every kind, richly 
endowed and ably conducted, uplift their sightly forms. Certainly 
not less so than in the past, is the spirit of selfishness prevalent 
among the people of this age. Perhaps by reason of the changed 
conditions of life, if that spirit has not grown, it has had freer 
play, but traveling alongside of it, and with unwearied step, is 
the liberal spirit which makes our charities munificient and the 
intelligent energy which makes them effective. 

There seems to be a divine law of compensation which invests 
every man and every age with some saving virtue. Thus the 
darkness of the feudal ages is relieved by the brilliancy of that 



144 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

extravagant, but admirable chivalry that alone saved Europe 
from absolute barbarism. 

Ours is an age of selfish strife. The acquisition of wealth and 
power is the universal ambition and to gratify which the most 
questionable agencies are employed. To the philosophic or re- 
flecting observer there would appear to be in progress a barbarous 
conflict among brothers, over an heritage ample for all if not 
wasted in struggle, but the din of the battle, fierce though it be, 
is not always heard. There are intervals when the combatants 
rest from the fatigue of the fray and a temporary silence falls 
upon the field. Then it is that the voice of the weak and suffering 
gains audience. Then it is that the divine elements of man 
become ascendant. Then it is that foemen cast down their arms 
and unite in succoring the distressed. This is the saving virtue 
of our time, and if the age of chivalry be dead indeed, it has 
left as a legacy this cherished truth, that the bravest heart to 
meet a foe, is soonest moved to pity. 

My friends, we are making history today. The representatives 
of seven great commonwealths are here assembled to assist in the 
solemn ceremonies of this hour. The occupations of our daily 
lives, our individual cares, our enmities, our private interests, 
have all been laid aside, to the end that we might each share 
in the beginning of an asylum for those helpless ones whom we 
have volunteered to protect. Let us not be guilty of vainglorious 
boasting, but let us at the same time feel better and nobler in the 
reflection that herein we turn to the light the brightest side of 
human nature. 

The nature of man is like unto the face of the earth. On the 
summit of the snow covered mountain, whose bleak and aspiring 
peak is shrouded in impenetrable mists ; in the desert whose 
waterless wastes have no alternation for quiet save in the dismal 
cry of savage brutes ; on the storm beaten bosom of the sea, there 
is sublimity but not beauty, but when gentle hills with verdant 
slope lead to greener vales, when valleys teem with birds and 
flowers, and the ocean heaves lazily under blue skies, we are 
moved to softer emotions, and so with man. 

In cold selfishness, silent hate, or noisy passion man may be 



LAYING OF CORNER STONE 145 

grand ; but he is only loveable in benevolence, justice and charity. 
It is to these phases of human nature, as exhibited in our times, 
that our contemporaries are erecting monuments in the shape of 
charitable institutions. It is to these phases of our natures that 
we are building this monument, and it is in that sense that I say 
we are making history today. But, my friends, we are making 
history not only as contemporaries, not only as Americans, not 
only as Southerners, but as members of that wonderful tribe of 
Israel whose crown of glory is its mission to endure with patience 
and by sufferance to teach the word of God. We are making 
history as component parts of the American Jews, whose wander- 
ing and blistered feet have found a hospitable welcome here, 
where the constitution of a free and enlightened people guaran- 
teeing equal rights to all men before the law, touches and exalts 
the persecuted heart like a divine benediction. 

When the solid structure that we are about to erect along with 
all surroundings shall lie crumbling prostrate before the great de- 
stroyer, when moss and ivy shall bandage the unsightly wound 
that time has made and the curious traveler shall brush aside the 
vine and chase the lurking serpent from this stone, what emo- 
tions shall be aroused in his bosom ? Shall he not stand in amaze- 
ment to muse over that ever recurring and never answered prob- 
lem of the Jew? Let us today as befitting this occasion, briefly 
consider what shall perhaps pass in review before him. 

For centuries the Jews have endured in Europe and Asia a 
series of persecutions unparalleled in the history of any other 
people and which no other people could have survived. From 
peasant to sovereign the Gentiles courted the favor of heaven by 
the oppression of a devoted race and cruelty to the helpless Jew 
was offered up as a virtuous tribute to the God that Israel gave 
them. By the laws of almost every nation, by the customs almost 
of every country, by the prejudices of every class, they were made 
to wear the badge of inferiority, until the degradation heaped 
upon them became an assimilated, but unnatural element of their 
character. In Ghettos and Judengassen, in the lowest walks of 
life to which they were confined, the plastic but indestructible 
nature of the Jew partook of its environment, so that when the 



I46 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

nineteenth century civilization sought to invest him with social 
and political liberty, he was apparently unfitted to receive it. Nor 
were they offered, save in a niggard spirit, by any but the young 
nation, one irrefragable support of whose greatness is the unre- 
stricted right of worship according to the dictates of our own 
conscience. The Jews along with other suffering people re- 
sponded to invitation offered by America. From Europe mainly 
and largely within the past two generations there has been an 
influx of Jews to our American shores, so that today about five 
per cent of the Jews in the world acknowledge and pay allegiance 
to the Stars and Stripes. 

In the nature of things, the immigrants, while to a large extent 
composed of adventurers, rather than desperate spirits, were in 
the main made up of the most needy, illiterate, unpolished and 
unsavory classes. Those who possessed a respectable measure of 
comfort at home, rarely, if ever, sought enlarged privileges in 
a distant country where the language, customs and laws were all 
strange. There are today about 300,000 Jews in the United 
States, composed almost exclusively of such immigrants as I have 
described and their descendants within the third generation. 

What should be the status of this people today ? Has this 
country done wisely to invite the scum of Europe and Asia to 
infest this land and madly riot in the privileges here extended? 
Has the result justified the experiment of the general invitation 
extended by the United States to the peoples of the world which 
has borne such a variety of fruit ? The refuge offered to the per- 
secuted and down-trodden has also been utilized by the scum of 
Europe and Asia and the conservative mind is filled with misgiv- 
ings as to the result. The fathers of our country projected an 
experiment in liberty, the wisdom of which may well be doubted 
in the light of its development. I do not, however, propose to 
discuss that question here, and I only mention it, in order that 
I may consider it in relation to our own people. If others have 
imposed tyranny by virtue of the power derived of liberties en- 
joyed, no such charge can be laid at our doors. 

The Jews have accepted freedom in good faith and for them 
I say the privileges extended have not been abused. For them I 



LAYING OF CORNER STONE I47 

dare to say, to the amazement of a wondering world, here under 
a beneficent government, we have risen in two generations from 
appalling degradation to the full stature of American manhood. 
I speak advisedly of the amazement of the world. Where can 
any history, save perhaps that of our people, point to another case 
of a down-trodden, persecuted, reviled and debased people who 
have risen so speedily from the slime of the marsh to the pure 
atmosphere of the hill tops? But perchance it will be said, I 
claim too much ; that zeal has carried me to extravagance, the 
alluring ante-room of falsehood. Let us therefore briefly can- 
vass the evidence : 

The Jews came here poor ; they have grown rich. They were 
illiterate ; today their children and grandchildren flock to the 
highest seats of learning and bear away honors awarded to merit. 
They were uncultured, niggard and rude ; today they build stately 
houses and fill them with rarest works of art. They came as 
peddlers, butchers and swineherds; today they follow every pro- 
fession and vocation with credit. 

They were indifferent to the government and its institutions; 
today they are patriots, and above aW and what is most germain 
to this occasion, they take from their substance with unmeasuring 
hand and bestow it in intelligent charity. 

The truth of all these claims is so apparent that "he who 
runs may read." It will be profitable, however, to examine some- 
what more closely into the charities of our people, and I ask your 
indulgence while I present a few eloquent figures. 

This is but a passing summary of the record and yet it speaks 
a volume. No achievements in peace or war can testify so elo- 
quently to a people's virtue as the charities they accomplish. Nor 
have our charities, as we have seen, been confined to our own 
people. In every hamlet and metropolis when calamity of public 
or private nature is called to popular attention, the Jew is ever 
ready and foremost with his contribution. As the flower ex- 
presses in perfume its gratitude for fresh air and nourishing sun- 
shine, so the Israelite voices his thanks for freedom in the charity 
he bestows. And could our grateful hearts find sweeter utterance 
than in the "mercy which blesses him that gives as well as him 
that receives?" 



I48 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

It is by our progress, our culture, our education, our obedience 
to law, our probity and above all by our good works that we are 
discharging our debt to the country which has enabled us to 
develop our natures, and I rejoice in it, both as a Jew and as an 
American. I rejoice in the conviction that were Columbia to call 
the roll of her adopted children and sternly demand which of them 
have requited her motherly protection and love, the Jew could 
step forward bearing the prints of industry and charity in his 
arms and proudly answer, "I." 

It would tax your patience too heavily to discuss at length the 
causes which underlie this phenomenal development. Volumes 
have been written to explain why in all climes and under all 
circumstances the Jews have adapted themselves to their environ- 
ment, without surrendering that mysterious quality which pre- 
serves their identity as Jews and as such pushes them ever to the 
front. 

There is something in the Jewish character which may not be 
defined for it is divine. The lamp that burns forever in the heart 
of Israel radiates the light of God. Mixed with all the grosser 
elements of our nature is that undying and fundamental principle 
of our faith, "love thy neighbor as thyself." Even the rude sav- 
ages that fitfully followed Moses were ripe for this grand idea 
and the seed planted in the breasts of those newly emancipated 
slaves has never perished. As Hillel said to the heathen, "What 
is evil unto thee do not to others." This is Judaism ; the rest is 
all commentary. 

Is it extravagant to claim that the mission of our race to pre- 
serve and promulgate this principle of love throughout all time, 
is the key to the problem of our history ? The love of our fellow- 
men, the spirit of charity in its broadest sense, is at once the 
Jewish sustenance and rule of action. So long as it governs us 
it will sustain us, and thank God the evidence multiplies daily 
to the fact that the end is not yet. 

Whenever the field is white unto the harvest the Jew is at 
work. Whenever sorrow wails and suffering appeals, the Jew 
is at hand to answer and to aid. Shall it not be always so? 
Shall the arms that have borne so much give way to burdens 



LAYING OF CORNER STONE 1 49 

now? Shall the spirit that braved the persecutions of centuries 
quail before the light of long deferred enfranchisement? Shall 
the sacred birthright of Israel consecrated again and again by 
martyrdom, be bartered away at last ? Believe it not. The lamp 
whose flame is divine will never be extinguished. The future is 
richer than the past. The past is freighted with our achieve- 
ments; the future is full of new duties from which we shall not 
shrink. The record we have made is but an earnest of what we 
shall do and in our modest way we here are doing our part to 
that end. 

Enjoying the fullest liberty ever offered by any national gov- 
ernment; untrammeled by tyrannical and debasing restrictions; 
with free air for aspiration, and the right under heaven to ele- 
vate our natures to the divine ideal, we shall requite the priv- 
ileges we enjoy by the good which we accomplish. If we reap in 
fields of plenty, there shall be left for the gleaners who follow 
in the harvesters' path, the tithe that belongs to the poor. Let 
this asylum in some measure support the promise we thus make. 
Let us not only build it, but conduct it on such humane and intel- 
ligent principles that it may be said in our midst as it may be 
said wherever the Jews are suffered to prosper, that the distress 
of the poor is the care of every Jewish heart. We must not, we 
shall not falter in this mission, my friends. Our hearts are in it 
and our arms will be strong for the task. Here will we shelter 
and protect the widow, here will we shelter and educate the 
orphan and may I not say for you and all of us to the widows and 
orphans of this, our country, "though you drop tears as fast as 
the Arabian trees their medicinable gum," yet shall you be com- 
forted. Though your wound be as deep as the limits of your 
hearts, they shall be healed, for the providence of the Lord 
shall lend the music of consolation to our words and soften the 
touch of our hands as we rest them in love upon your afflicted 
heads. 

Such, my friends, be the proclamation that we issue today, and 
let it be so verified by our deeds that the afflicted shall echo and 
re-echo again the time-honored prayer of our people, "Blessed 
be the name of the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever." 



A LAYMAN'S OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 

Reverend Sirs: 

In great perplexity of mind and to the end that I may be en- 
lightened, I appeal to you. I am advised by my investigations 
that it is a traditional right and duty of the Jews to obtain instruc- 
tion from the rabbis upon any and all matters pertaining to 
Judaism. It is in the exercise of that right and in the perform- 
ance of that duty that I now address you. I have chosen to cor- 
respond with you thus publicly, in order that those who are 
perturbed like me, may have their embarrassments made known 
by what I propound and removed if possible by what you respond. 

I am an American born Jew, desirous of maintaining the 
Jewish religion and my adherence thereto. I look with alarm 
upon anything which impels the American Jew to a position 
that may lead to his separation from Judaism. I have earnestly 
watched the progress of Jewish affairs in this country and I am 
so bewildered by their complexity that I am unable without your 
gracious aid to determine my own position. 

In this dilemma I am not alone. I have conferred with my 
fellows in respect of my own perplexities, and I discover that 
not less blindly than myself do they grope in the darkness. I 
can not undertake to detail all the circumstances which have 
produced this unhappy mental state. I must content myself with 
the statement of a few outlines and leave to your fecund and 
discriminating intelligence the elaboration of the details. 

I have been taught that Judaism is a religion teaching certain 
doctrines and the practice of certain duties. I have been taught 
that the better to accomplish such instruction and practice, cer- 
tain ceremonies of more or less antiquity were observed. I have 
been taught that mere forms and ceremonies had been modified, 
increased or abolished from time to time by proper authorities 
to meet the requirements of the ages in which such changes 
occurred, but I have also been taught that the doctrines and 

150 



OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 151 

principles of Judaism in their purity, were of divine origin and 
not subject to be altered. In other words I have been led to 
believe that Jwdaism was an independent existence; a fact inde- 
pendent of what men thought about it; a religion in short that 
has a definition by which it may be identified without reference 
to the people who profess it. I have been taught that Judaism is 
a religion which Jews or anyone else might profess and that it 
is not merely a conglomeration of the doctrines which members 
of the Jewish race profess. I have always understood that if a 
born Jew accepts the divinity of Christ he becomes from a re- 
ligious standpoint a Christian, and e converso, if a born 
Christian rejects Christ and adopts the doctrines of Judaism he 
becomes from a religious standpoint a Jew. Have I been prop- 
erly instructed? I anticipate an affirmative reply, for that I was 
instructed by members of your calling. Being thus instructed, 
behold what difficulties beset me, when having arrived at man's 
estate, I make observations on my own account. 

I observe that about three hundred rabbis presumably min- 
ister to the spiritual wants of the Jews in America. I observe 
that Judaism is professed in and avowedly taught from about 
three hundred pulpits in this blessed land of liberty. But alas ! 
I also observe that what is termed Judaism in one synagogue is 
denounced as heresy in others and that when I seek to test the 
true Judaism in order to repudiate the false, I discover that 
you do not agree among yourselves. If I had but one of your 
number to appeal to, I could doubtless obtain ex cathedra satis- 
factory responses to all my queries, for I should ask no ques- 
tions that I myself could answer, and I would be unable to dispute 
or doubt the correctness of those called for; but your number is 
legion ! You are presumably all ordained and duly qualified as 
teachers of Israel ; none of you has authority over the rest. You 
are co-ordinate and co-equal, and hence when you differ among 
yourselves, to whom shall I apply? Nor are your differences 
trivial. There is the general schism between the orthodox and 
the reformers, and among the reformers almost as many distinct 
doctrines as there are rabbis. In this diversity of views, I might 
look for the "common tie" in the race idea, but behold, a convoca- 



152 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

tion of rabbis has declared that the Jews are no longer a race, 
but only a "religious community." If this be true then the Jews 
have a common religion, and that religion is Judaism. But the 
questions recurs, what is Judaism ? And then again begins the 
differences between yourselves. I am patient myself and will 
labor long and earnestly for the truth, but it grieves me sorely to 
observe so many of my fellows exclaim "a plague on all your 
houses" and turn away from the fold entirely. 

Perchance I do you wrong when I attribute the prevailing re- 
ligious differences to the want of uniformity in your teaching, 
but I think not. 

I have sought diligently and impartially for the causes that 
underlie the present condition of affairs, and governed as I am by 
the kindest feeling for your sacred calling, I am constrained to 
believe that if all our rabbis were agreed to teach what they all 
agreed was Judaism all the Jews would know what Judaism 
meant, and as in other countries would observe it. Believe me, 
when I assure you that I am far more charitable in my judgment 
of the rabbis in American than the vast bulk of my co-religionists. 
I hear every day the charge made by Jews that not only do the 
rabbis preach a distorted and false Judaism, but that they do not 
believe even the little which they preach. 

I hear it charged that what you teach the Jewish children in 
the Sabbath schools, and what they profess as your teachings on 
Shebuoth is not the doctrine which you believe in your "heart of 
hearts." 

And when I have indignantly protested against this charge 
of base hypocrisy on your part and ask how such facts as charged 
can be reconciled with your calling, I am answered that many of 
you are "rabbis for revenue only." It is said that many of you 
teach what your congregations like to hear, rather than what 
it is proper for them to know. 

It is charged that many of you eschew sermons altogether 
and lecture upon social, political, literary and philosophical sub- 
jects, in order to avoid all questions of doctrine. Finally against 
some of you the indictment is made that you employ your position 
in Jewish pulpits to assail before Jewish congregations, the most 



OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 1 53 

sacred doctrines of Judaism, not even sparing the Torah itself. 
"Can such things be ?" 

I asked one of your number once if he could reconcile a re- 
pudiation of the verity of the Old Testament with Judaism. "My 
dear friend," said he, "would you have me preach what I do not 
believe? Would you have me teach the truth of the testament 
when as an educated man I know it is not true ?" I answered him 
as a friend, that I would not countenance hypocrisy nor restrict 
in any manner the liberty of thought or speech, but that there 
is a time and a place for all things. I conceived it then as I do 
now that the duty of every man is to teach the truth as he believes 
it, but if truth as he understands it, is in conflict with Judaism, a 
synagogue should not be chosen to preach it. 

It is an insult to decency for any man to accept the position 
of rabbi and retain it as such, and in a Jewish pulpit to assail 
Judaism to a congregation of Jews. It were as proper for a Cath- 
olic priest to preach Judaism in a cathedral. I advised my friend 
to be a man and resign his place. I advise all rabbis who are not 
Jews to do likewise. A few have done this, and as free lances 
preach what they list. I may not, nay, do not, admire their teach- 
ings, but I admire their manhood which prompted them to with- 
draw from connection with a church that they were unwilling 
to undermine while paid to support it. Pray tell me, am I not 
right? Do you blame me? I trust not, but if you do censure 
me, give me the benefit of your reasoning, so that I may feel even 
more charity for those rabbis whom I have observed to teach anti- 
Jewish doctrines from a Jewish pulpit. They have not resigned. 

If all the charges which I have stated be false then they should 
be emphatically denied by every one of you. Nay ! if any of them 
be false, in so far, they should be negatived. 

But you ask me, what is it that you wish? Wait! Let me 
show you some of the effects of the Jewish revolution in America. 

On June 3d, 1887, in a prominent Jewish periodical, there 
appeared without comment by the editor, a sermon on the Jews, 
preached by W. H. Campbell in the Congregational church at 
Carthage, Mo., on October 10th, 1886. In the course of the 
sermon the following significant language was used : 



154 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

"The strict requirements of the old orthodox party is becom- 
ing a thing to be talked about in our Jewish families. While 
they do not look with approbation upon the marriage of their 
children with Gentile families, yet their family education is such 
as to open the gates for such marriages. In the last few years 
three such marriages have fallen under my own observation. A 
few years ago the daughter of Rabbi Wise, of Cincinnati, one 
of the leading Jewish teachers of this country, editor of one of 
their papers, actually abandoned her home and married a Roman 
Catholic. This simply shows the drift of the Jewish tendencies. 
It shows us that invincible rampart of Judaic exclusiveness is 
giving way, and that they with all the people of the earth, may yet 
be reached and moulded by the blessed gospel of the Nazarene. 

"The Jew lives today in the declining shadow of his father's 
religion. He still disbelieves in the divinity of Jesus, but he is 
abandoning the 'traditions of the elders' and placing himself on 
the broad ground of agnostic or rationalistic disbelief in all re- 
ligion, where in common with the thousands of our countrymen 
he may be reached by the Church of God." , 

The writer has been deeply impressed by the circumstances 
which provoked, if they do not warrant such expressions. 

But a few days since I had occasion to confer with a gentle- 
man in respect of matters affecting Jewish affairs. In the course 
of the conference, I appealed to him for aid in the construction of 
a Jewish synagogue. He declined on the ground that there was 
no reason why he should contribute for such a purpose, for, said 
he: "I am a Jew only by the accident of birth. It is true," he 
continued, "I don't believe in Christianity, neither am I an atheist, 
but in that I don't believe in the inspiration or verity of the Old 
Testament, nor in the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish religion, 
I can not consider myself as a Jew, otherwise than as a member 
of the race, and for that fact I am in no wise responsible." 

Recently in one of our largest cities, a gentleman of prom- 
inence and ability delivered a so-called lay-sermon, in which it 
was proposed to set forth the religious views of the American 
Jews. In this lay-sermon, the lecturer denounced as obsolete doc- 



©PEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 1 55 

trines some of the most important and cardinal tenets of the 
Jewish faith. 

I could continue the recital of facts and occurrences which 
give prominence and imminence to the question agitating my 
mind and the minds of others viz. : "Is this so-called reform 
movement in America merely an intelligent and conservative 
movement designed and calculated to preserve Judaism by ridding 
it of mere trivial forms and ceremonies instituted by rabbis in 
a former age, or is it a revolution affecting doctrines and prin- 
ciples which if allowed to ripen will separate the Jews in America 
from Judaism and make them easy prey for other denomina- 
tions ?" 

Has this question not occurred to you? The Rev. W. H. 
Campbell has evidently considered it. The American born Jew 
is considering it, and moreover he proposes to have an answer 
to it. It is not easy to solve the problem, because we have no 
common locus standi, except that we want to preserve Judaism. 
Having reached thus far the old question recurs: What is 
Judaism ? I read and you do, in the public prints, sermon after 
sermon in reply to the thread-bare question, Why am I a Jew? 
The question is monotonously uniform, but the replies are only 
uniform in that they all disagree one with the other. In view of 
such a state of affairs I deem it small wonder that my fellows 
exclaim "A plague on all your houses." 

Let us ponder boldly; 'tis a base abandonment of reason to 
resign the right of thought. My reverend friends, wax not wroth 
at these questionings. Do not discard them with a sneer of con- 
tempt. Do not deride the presumption of laymen who question 
your motives or deeds. Remember that you claim the right to 
probe into the motives and deeds of Moses. Nay of Israel's 
God himself. Shall you be exempt? Shall we not question? 
With such examples before them, you must be patient when the 
people doubt you, and ask an account at your hands. 

We want light. There is a chaotic condition of affairs now 
existent than precludes an intelligent selection of our course. Tell 
us, what is Judaism ? 

When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick 



I56 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

weather on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the 
first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take his 
latitude and ascertain how far the elements have driven him 
from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence and before 
we float farther, refer to the point from which we departed, that 
we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are. 

To that end I beg particularly to propound certain inter- 
rogatories, to which I most respectfully pray for replies either 
in the pulpit or the press. 

I ask these questions in no captious spirit, and I sincerely trust 
that each of you will regard them as entirely proper to be asked 
and necessary to be answered. 

1 st. Is Judaism a religion that may be defined so that it can 
be distinguished by its elements from all other creeds, or is it sim- 
ply any system of doctrines professed by Jews? 

2d. If it be a religion per se, are its fundamental doctrines 
and principles of divine or human origin? 

3d. If it be simply the doctrines maintained by the Jews, then 
state what is Judaism when the Jews do not all believe alike. 
Will the creed of the majority be entitled to the name? 

4th. If you answer yea, to the foregoing interrogator)-, state 
if the few hundred thousand reformed Jews have not moved 
without the pale of Judaism. 

5th. If on the other hand you answer that Judaism is a 
religion per se then state if its cardinal, fundamental and dis- 
tinctive doctrines are not of ancient origin, whether human or 
divine. 

6th. Being ancient and well defined, and giving character to 
the religion, are these doctrines and principles the proper subject 
matter of change and if so by whom may they be altered? 

7th. Who is invested with the authority to make any change 
in principles and doctrines as maintained aforetime and whence 
was that authority derived ? 

8th. If you answer that reason is the authority, then state 
who shall test the quality of the reason, and whether if reason 
conflicts with Judaism, it may be substituted for and take the 
name of Judaism. 



OPEN LETTER TO THE RABBIS. 157 

9th. Was Maimonides a Jew, and did he or not know what 
Judaism was, as taught in the Old Testament? 

10th. Is the Old Testament the proper source whence to 
derive the truths and essentials of Judaism? 

1 ith. Is the Old Testament true ? 

12th. Is the Old Testament an inspired book, or only the 
work of human hands ? 

13th. Did Maimonides correctly state the doctrines of Juda- 
ism in his thirteen articles ? If not, in what particular did he err ? 

14th. Is it true that the rabbis in America are not in accord 
in their conceptions or definitions of Judaism? 

15th. Is it true that many rabbis preach what they do not 
believe ? 

16th. Is it true that many rabbis believe that which they know 
conflicts with Judaism and hence do not preach it? 

17th. Is it true that many rabbis are rationalists, pantheists, 
agnostics, materialists or skeptics? Do you belong to any of 
these classes? 

18th. Do you believe in a personal god ? 

19th. Do you believe in the efficacy of prayer? That is to 
say, do you believe that God hears and either grants or refuses 
the prayers that we utter? 

20th. Do you believe that Israel has the divine mission to 
teach God's word? 

2 1 st. Do you believe in revelation as narrated in the Old 
Testament ? 

22d. Do you believe in the sanctity of the Sabbath as a God 
ordained holiday? 

23d. Do you believe that a religious obligation rests upon 
the Jews to practice the rite of circumcision? 

24th. Do you believe that the Jews are simply a religious 
community or a race of people with a divine mission ? 

25th. Do you believe that there exists any material difference 
between Judaism and any other religion which teaches simply a 
pure monotheism and morality? 

26th. What are the distinctive and essential elements of Juda- 
ism ? 



I58 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

27th. If anyone does not believe in them does he not cease 
to be a Jew from a religious standpoint? 

28th. Do you believe in them ? 

29th. Do you believe in anything that makes your belief in 
Judaism impossible ? 

30th. Have you defined Judaism as you would have it, or as 
it is? 

In conclusion let me again urge you not to ignore this appeal. 
It will not go unnoticed. The inquiring mind must be satisfied, 
and unless you desire to encourage the prevailing indifference 
and hasten the hour when we "shall sit in the shadow of our 
fathers' declining religion," you will give earnest heed to the 
problems presented above. "Under which King Benzonian? 
Speak or die." 

Awaiting your prompt and favorable consideration of my 
great dilemma, I remain, 

Your Most Obedient and Respectful Servant. 



THE JEWS OF TODAY IN AMERICA. 

Address delivered at Memphis, Tenn., 1884. 

Some years ago a distinguished Rabbi in my presence pre- 
dicted the early decline and fall of Judaism, and the Jews. His 
gloomy views were based upon the fact that among those Jews 
who were not indifferent to their religion, there was discord oper- 
ating to bring about ruin. 

So far from agreeing with him, I ventured to prophesy that 
in the American-born Jew would be found a force not only to 
perpetuate the Jewish religion, but to endow Jewish social and 
communal life with such dignity and virtue as would add new 
luster to our history. It is not yet timely to claim that my fore- 
cast was correct, but unless I am mistaken in the trend of the 
hearts and minds of .the young American Jews it was not without 
warrant. 

It is not to be gainsaid that in every direction we find affluent, 
educated and talented young men who chafe under certain social 
limitations ; who sneer at their race and religion, and who, with 
ostentation, manifest not only indifference to, but contempt for, 
both. But to a great extent these are governed rather by self- 
glorification, than any deep-seated aversion to Jews or Judaism, 
and beneath the thin veneer of such self-worship, there abides 
an ineradicable, although suppressed, devotion to the traditions 
and duties, if not to the doctrines, of our race. 

The Jew, while lamenting, loves the restrictions that environ 
him. The scars of conflict, although disfiguring and fraught with 
pain, are ever the sources of pride and the objects of affection to 
him who wears them. And so the Jew, who perforce recognizes 
the limitations which surround him as the evidences of his long 
and heroic struggle with relentless foes, in his innermost heart 
loves those limitations for the story they tell. 

159 



l6o LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

For all this, there are doubtless many of our young men who 
are so far dissatisfied with their race and religion that they wish 
to separate themselves from the one and to throw off the other. 
But if there be among us some weaklings who ostensibly or 
actually seek to kick over the ladder by which they have ascended ; 
who would destroy the family Bible because in its pages is to be 
found the family religion, and on its fly leaves the family pedi- 
gree, it is undeniably true that the great majority of our youths 
are loyal to their people and to the essential principles of the 
ancestral faith. 

There are wide differences between the Jews born in America 
and the foreign fathers who begot them. The thrift, industry, forti- 
tude and domestic virtues which distinguished the father appear in 
a lesser degree in the son, but in the latter, in a greater degree, are 
to be found a liberal education, the graces of refined society and 
the pride engendered by an atmosphere of religious and political 
freedom. The father spent his youth under conditions that nat- 
urally narrowed his point of view. Everywhere for him was 
constraint. Even the study of his religion was conducted under 
iron rules, and the observance of them enforced with such rigor 
that no latitude was allowed for expansion of thought. When 
he departed from his native home and established himself in 
free America, it was entirely natural that the restraints which 
obtained on the other side of the Atlantic should be thrown off 
without moderation. Not equipped by education to make nice 
distinctions, and accustomed to the mechanical observance of 
religious ceremonies, there had come to exist in his mind a con- 
fusion between the spirit and the forms of the religion. When, 
in the enjoyment of the new-found liberty, some of the forms 
which had been regarded as sacred, were no longer observed, in 
a spirit of bravado, others were set aside, and finally, to a large 
extent, a derision of the religion took the place of its former 
slavish observance. The acquisition of wealth intensified the 
disposition to set aside the religion. It would be unjust to say 
that Mammon had been set up to be worshiped, but it would be 
less than the truth if I should fail to say that in many cases the 
eager quest for gold had become so absorbing that neither time 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. l6l 

nor inclination was left for the religious life. But with the off- 
spring of these emigrants the conditions were different. They 
grew up in an atmosphere of liberty. No restrictions of any kind 
were imposed upon them. They were not driven to hardship and 
suffering by the lash of poverty. They were not debarred the 
privileges of education, but, on the contrary, wherever talent man- 
ifested itself in a youth he was urged, not only by his own inclina- 
tion, but by his elders, to develop such talent and to follow some 
learned profession. And so we find that while less than three- 
quarters of a century have passed since any considerable settle- 
ment of Jews in the United States, the walks of every learned 
profession and every avenue of art and science are frequented 
by Jews, who almost invariably have forged to the front rank. 
These young men, if compared with their fathers, are lamentably 
ignorant of the religion and history of their race. They have 
devoted no time to that study of the law and commentaries thereon 
which is regarded in Europe as the crown of glory, but they 
have not remained altogether uninformed, and the larger outlines 
of Jewish history and the essential elements of the Jewish faith 
have found lodgment in their minds. If they be Americans, more 
than Jews, their very Americanism makes them bold in respect 
of their Jewish lineage. The courage and chivalry which they 
prize as Americans make them cling with tenacity to the fortunes 
of their people, and if this seems to operate at times to their detri- 
ment they face the situation without quailing. They are Amer- 
icans with all of the American assertiveness, pushing, jostling 
and rushing through life, giving and taking blows with courage 
and good humor, striking better because they are Americans and 
enduring better because they are Jews. And to such men to 
whom the intellectual life was a choice, the religious life becomes 
a necessity. 

The barrenness of materialism fails to satisfy the aspirations 
of expanded souls, and they seek, not in musty books nor in 
cabalistic characters, for their faith, but in open volumes which 
tell in plain and simple language those essential truths, concern- 
ing which there can be but little dispute. They are discontented 
with existing conditions. Philosophy is unacceptable as a sub- 



102 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

stitute for religion and as yet they are groping for a religion 
which satisfies. On the one hand they reject a ritualism which 
overshadows righteousness, and on the other, new departures 
which destroy devotion. But the worshipful leaven is at work 
within them and will cause them to follow Abraham who de- 
stroyed the idols in his father's house, and upon the sands of the 
Chaldean desert found and communed with God. 

This religious spirit is, however, of recent birth ; indeed, it 
may be characterized as embryonic. It has taken neither shape 
nor form; it has set up no dogmas or creeds; it is simply an 
aspiration after the truth, not so heavily covered as to be suf- 
focated, or so naked as to be frozen. But it manifests itself as 
all true religious fervor does, in a yearning to serve the Almighty 
through service to mankind. 

This development of a religious spirit is not new in the 
history of the world ; indeed, I think I may safely say that the 
substratum of all religion consists of the love which man bears 
to his fellow-man. Upon this foundation he builds upward until 
he has an adequate conception of the relation between himself 
and his Creator. 

The aspirations to which I have referred have developed and 
are developing energies that are daily seeking subjects upon 
which to operate. And these latter are not wanting. To the 
young men and the young women of our race in this country 
are coming problems, some arising from new conditions, and 
others handed down by the short-comings, or short-sightedness 
of the preceding generation. These problems are pressing and 
numerous. I shall not attempt to advert to all of them, but those 
which I shall mention will doubtless suggest others that are of no 
less importance. 

It is only within the past two decades that we have had such 
an influx of ignorant and poverty-stricken co-religionists as to 
make their presence in this country a matter for serious reflection. 
Prior to the recent persecutions of the Jews in Russia and the 
Balkan provinces, the emigration to this country from Europe 
was gradual and voluntary, and those who came were able, by 
unaided efforts or the assistance of relatives and friends, to estab- 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 163 

lish themselves firmly and safely in their new homes. Their 
prosperity came rapidly; suffering and poverty were rare, and 
out of the exuberance of charity the prosperous made provision 
for the poor and the suffering without any careful study of the 
proper bounds and exercise of benevolence. 

Such organizations as were created were at first altogether 
local, and based upon unpretentious European models. Aside 
from the benefactions thus administered, individuals not only 
contributed to every applicant for alms, but sought out deserv- 
ing cases of want for the pleasure of alleviating the distress 
thus discovered. It goes without saying that even in small com- 
munities great impositions were practiced, but those who were 
imposed upon contented themselves with the reflection that it was 
better to give to ninety-nine unworthy beggars than to refuse 
one who was really deserving. This superficial view has been 
the prolific mother of many mischiefs in philanthropic work. 

A moment's reflection should convince any one that it is not 
sufficient to have the charitable impulse and follow it by benefac- 
tions, but that it is also necessary to regard charity as a duty, 
the performance of which challenges the highest intelligence, firm- 
ness and wisdom. The bestowal of alms upon the unworthy is a 
corresponding denial to the deserving. 

As the Jewish population of the United States increased the 
philanthropic work that demanded attention overtaxed the pow- 
ers of local organizations. In the larger cities eleemosynary in- 
stitutions were established undertaking to provide for helpless and 
deserving persons, for the care of whom the benevolent societies 
were incompetent. It would be difficult to overestimate the en- 
thusiasm exhibited in the formation and the conduct of such insti- 
tutions. Local pride was inflamed and, especially among the 
wealthy, was there a generous rivalry in the amount of contribu- 
tions offered for the establishment and maintenance of these vari- 
ous asylums for the poor. Men of more or less capacity volun- 
teered their time and attention, as well as their money, and their 
efforts and their sacrifices were rewarded by the applause, not 
only of local communities but of our people in all parts of the 
country. The distinction thus bestowed upon the managers of 



164 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

organized charities stimulated the founding of others in which 
like distinctions were sought. A somewhat too rapid multiplica- 
tion was the natural result. It was not deemed necessary to study 
whether or not a new charity was demanded or whether one was 
more deserving than another. It was sufficient that what was 
projected was good in itself, and that the means to carry it out 
were forthcoming, either as the result of voluntary contributions 
or such as were obtained by personal solicitation on the part of 
those whose pride was enlisted to achieve success. This success 
was estimated by the amount of contributions obtained, and the 
manner in which they were employed. Costly and beautiful 
edifices were erected, furnished with every comfort, and, I might 
say, almost every luxury that ingenuity could suggest or money 
provide, and a rivalry sprung up between the different institu- 
tions in which each sought to do better than the other by the 
objects of their bounty. Those who were charged with the man- 
agement of a particular charity as a rule became so engrossed 
in the work that they would devote little, if any, attention to 
other benefactions, and in many instances, personal influence 
operated so strongly in favor of one that others were unintention- 
ally impeded. 

To not a little extent this condition prevails at the present 
time. In some communities, men, actuated by a charitable spirit 
that is more emotional than wise, or, in rarer cases, by personal 
ambition, have called into being organizations which compete, so 
to speak, with others, and exploit our people to such an extent 
that their abilities to contribute are overtaxed. So long as the 
Jewish public was able to provide for all of these benefactions, 
without stopping to inquire which were the more deserving, the 
evils referred to were not and could not be obvious. 

But since there have come to our shores needy and ignorant 
co-religionists equal in number, perhaps, to those who had, prior 
to twenty years ago, successfully established themselves in these 
United States, the ratio of those who need help to those able to 
extend it, has risen so high that it becomes imperatively neces- 
sary to halt and take our bearings in philanthropic matters. 

No efforts are required to arouse in the Jewish heart a char- 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 165 

itable emotion — it has always found an abiding place there; and 
if anything, it is too impulsive in answering the appeal of the 
suffering. What is necessary is to educate the Jewish mind to a 
proper understanding of our duty in respect of those who require 
our assistance. It is requisite to teach anew what has always 
been a doctrine of the Jewish church, that charity is simple jus- 
tice, and that as such it must be bestowed, not indiscriminately 
but intelligently. The individual must be taught that ordinarily 
the direct bestowal of alms upon the mendicant is an unwise, and, 
therefore, an unjust depletion of the ability of the alms-giver. 
Whatever the individual has to bestow in charity belongs not to 
him but to the deserving poor. He is but a trustee. The fund is 
a trust-fund in his hands in the disposition of which he should 
take no chances, for the consequences of a mistake do not fall 
upon him but upon the poor. Moreover, such haphazard and 
undiscriminating charity offers a premium to the indolent to 
forsake the paths of industry and rely upon alms for sustenance. 
The time has arrived when we must deal with our needy from a 
scientific standpoint. When we have measured our ability to 
contribute to charitable work, we must see to it that our contribu- 
tions achieve the best results. 

This can be done only through organizations administered 
with the highest wisdom and without regard to personal ambition, 
or the pleasure derived therefrom by those charged with the 
administration. Moreover, it is not only necessary that each 
particular charity should be thus administered, but that each 
should be administered with reference to all the others, having 
in mind that the common object of all should be the well-being of 
all. 

In every civilized government there are numerous depart- 
ments, each necessary to carry out the functions of the govern- 
ment, but each so related to all the others that by the operation 
of all, if wisely conducted, the best results for the people can be 
secured. No government can be a success, in which a less im- 
portant department is pampered at the expense of one that is 
more important. If the revenues of the government are devoted 
to perfecting one agency when another is more required, disaster 



1 66 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

must surely result. To avoid such evils, at the beginning of each 
fiscal period the statesmen who conduct public affairs make a bud- 
get of the expected revenues and of the expenditures required. In 
the raising of revenues so as to create no unnecessary burdens, 
and in the effective distribution thereof in the public interest, is 
to be found the highest statesmanship. 

After such a model should be created some system of philan- 
thropy in this country among our people. It is not my purpose to 
formulate and declare a plan that will be effective to such an end. 
I do not arrogate to myself the ability to outline a scheme that 
would be satisfactory to others or even to myself, but if I can 
make it apparent that some comprehensive policy, possessing 
national as well as local features is required, I do not doubt that 
the means to achieve the same will be found in a multitude of 
counsel. I shall content myself with the simple statement of a 
few general principles, the correctness of which I know will not 
be challenged and the application of which to existing conditions 
can readily be made. 

To begin with, a means should be found to obtain from every 
one, according to his capacity, contributions in effort and in 
money for the alleviation of suffering, and for war upon igno- 
rance among our people. It is not sufficient that a few should give 
liberally. It is necessary that all should contribute justly and this 
is true, not only because the aggregation of many contributions of 
money and effort will be of greatest service to the poor and the 
ignorant, but because, what is almost equally important, it will be 
of such vast benefit to those who give. There can be no objection 
to great benefactions from the rich, but these must not excuse 
proportionately liberal benefactions from those in modest cir- 
cumstances. Again, while great and occasional gifts should be 
encouraged, a steady revenue for charitable purposes should be 
more earnestly striven for. When it is ascertained, as it can be 
with proper organization, what sums in each locality and in the 
country at large, can be counted upon for philanthropic work, the 
best thought and study should be given to such a disposition of 
these revenues as will accomplish the greatest good where most 
urgently required. We are no longer in that happy condition 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 167 

when our means are greater than the calls made on us; on the 
contrary, the demands for help far exceed our ability, and it be- 
hooves us to so manage that if any demand be left unanswered it 
shall be because one of a more pressing and deserving nature has 
been complied with. It is because no adequate provision has been 
heretofore made for such management that I find fault with the 
administration of our charities up to the present time, and it is 
in the hope mainly of reforms in the future that I venture the 
criticisms contained in these remarks. 

Conditions would be ideal if among our people in this country 
there existed one great organization having universal support and 
so equipped that it could deal effectively, and in the first instance, 
with national matters, and in a supervisory capacity with district 
and local affairs. Such an organization in which each member 
would stand upon a parity with all the others, and in which the 
individual contribution to the general funds would be exceeding- 
ly small, would afford an opportunity to even the poor among us 
to add their means and their energies to philanthropic undertak- 
ings without lessening the opportunity or the impulse of those in 
better circumstances to supplement the general revenues with 
large occasional donations. Every member in such a society 
would naturally feel a direct interest in every charitable enter- 
prise, which would not be left, as is largely now the case, in the 
hands of a minority in each community because of their personal 
popularity or their generous contributions. Moreover, at stated 
intervals, representatives of the members could and would meet 
in conference to consider, not only the ways and means of raising 
revenues, but what is equally important, the direction in which 
they should be expended, the rate of the expenditure and the 
preference, if any, that should be given to one work over an- 
other. 

To carry out this idea it would not be necessary for existing 
or future orphan asylums, hospitals, homes for the aged, etc., to 
surrender their autonomy. It has been found that even in institu- 
tions founded and conducted by the B'nai B'rith and other orders, 
a large measure of independence is wisely conferred upon the 
management. But the occasion for establishing such asylums, the 



l68 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

order in which they should be called into existence, the general 
policy to be pursued in conducting them, the location of them and 
kindred questions, should be confided to parliaments, so to speak, 
in which large districts are represented and in which local pride 
and personal ambitions must yield to the general good. 

A practical illustration of this thought is afforded in the Sev- 
enth District of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith. The 
Jewish Widows' and Orphans' Home and the Touro Infirmary at 
New Orleans were established without reference to the B'nai 
B'rith. Both were originally more or less local in their opera- 
tions. But in time each sheltered and ministered to the helpless 
and suffering from all the States composing the Seventh District. 
Local contributions were inadequate for the service required, and 
contributions from other communities were fitful and therefore 
unreliable. Under such circumstances the Home first, and the 
Infirmary next, sought sanction and support from the Seventh 
District. Both applications were granted. From the funds of 
the District each institution receives Two Dollars per annum for 
each member of the District. In return the District is given rep- 
resentation on the Board of Managers, is furnished regularity 
with all reports and in convention is afforded an opportunity to 
influence the policy and administration of these institutions. Ev- 
ery innovation of importance is submitttd to the Grand Lodge for 
approval. The annual consideration by the Grand Lodge of these 
charities has proven a wholesome and effective agency. Moreover, 
the close union between them and the Order has made it certain 
that no rivals will arise in the Seventh District until circum- 
stances demand them. So accustomed are the people to rely 
upon the wisdom of their representatives in the Grand Lodge 
that if a new Orphans' Home or Hospital were proposed, an en- 
dorsement by the Grand Lodge would be a prerequisite of suc- 
cess. 

Among the evils I am combatting I mention only a few : per- 
sonal ambition, spite and vainglory too frequently give birth to 
organizations having a worthy object in view, but for which there 
is no pressing, if any, need, and the existence of which imperils 
the safety and effectiveness of others more deserving because 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. l6g 

more requisite. It would be amusing, if the results were not so 
serious to contemplate the numerous associations in our larger 
cities, all working on practically independent lines, each pushed 
with energy and promoted with pride, and each, in a measure, 
impeding or impairing the good work of the others — not pur- 
posely, be it understood, but because each draws from the com- 
mon stock of means and ability. 

Think of a system, or want of system, if you like, of philan- 
thropic work in which time, talent and money are expended to ac- 
complish worthy, but not necessary, ends, and in which, for want 
of means, helpless children are allowed to grow up in need and 
ignorance, or, what is worse, to die for want of proper sustenance. 

I have no desire to weary you with statistics, and candor com- 
pels me to say that I have no comprehensive and accurate statis- 
tics that I might employ on this occasion. I am warranted, how- 
ever, in saying, from such investigations as I have been able to 
make, that in the larger cities, especially, not exceeding ten per 
cent of the Jewish population are regular contributors to organ- 
ized charity. This testifies, most eloquently, to existing faults in 
raising revenues, and the straightened circumstances of our most 
deserving eleemosynary institutions prove how they suffer from 
the existence of the less deserving. It goes without saying that 
aside from the waste of energy and means involved in the condi- 
tions which I have named, there is necessarily an extravagance or 
want of economy in the multiplication of societies. In most all 
of these, salaries must be paid to executive officers, and other 
expenses incurred that could be avoided or curtailed by more 
comprehensive organization. I have in mind one association, na- 
tional in its character, which, according to the official reports, ex- 
pends one-fourth of its revenues in salaries. But yet another evil 
has grown up, and which would be corrected if these problems 
were studied scientifically and discussed along lines that took no 
account of personal ambitions or pride. 

In our asylums and hospitals too much attention has been 
paid to art, beauty and luxury. There is too much pride in the 
beauty of the structures and their surroundings; in the cost of 
the buildings and the furnishings; in the high character of the 



I70 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

food and the service. The pleasure of exhibiting all these fea- 
tures to the glory of the management is not the least consideration 
in the conduct of affairs. For one I am constrained to find fault 
in those things which are generally esteemed virtues. When I 
say this, my criticism falls upon myself as well as upon any other, 
for until circumstances compelled me to reflect more deeply upon 
the subject, I, too, rejoiced over the magnificence with which our 
different charities were being conducted. But maturer reflection 
has convinced me that in philanthropic work the pride and glory 
of the philanthropist should be entirely subordinate to the well- 
being of the object of his bounty. It is not for our sake that we 
should give or do, but for the sake of those who stand in need, 
and doing and giving are duties to be performed as if we were 
paying a debt that might be rightfully claimed from us. If this be 
a correct proposition, it behooves us to inquire who are our cred- 
itors and what must be done in order to discharge the obligation. 
We shall not do our duty if we overpay one creditor and deny 
another altogether. We must be just as well as generous, and if 
we cannot be both, let us be just. Can we satisfy our conscience 
by taking one of a number of poverty-stricken proteges, and, as 
it were, rolling him in the lap of luxury while the others are left 
without any share, whatever, in our bounty? This is what is 
frequently, if not generally, done under the present want of sys- 
tem in the administration of Jewish benefactions. 

I cannot undertake, within the limits of a single address, to 
go far into details. It will suffice, however, to illustrate my mean- 
ing, to deal even superficially with our orphan asylums. Every- 
where our people look with pride and tenderness upon these shel- 
ters for the helpless ones who are denied parental protection. To 
me, as a rule, they are a reproach, not because those who contrib- 
ute to them and administer to them are not actuated by the loftiest 
motives, but because in the genesis and careers of these institu- 
tions cetrain principles have been lost sight of, the non-observ- 
ance of which have led to great wrong. 

Let me refer to an official report which is by no means unique : 
In the Forty-first Annual Report of the Jewish Foster Home and 
Orphan Asylum of Philadelphia, issued in 1896, is to be found the 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 171 

following language in the President's message : "For the first time 
in the history of this institution, a period now covering forty-one 
years, we have in the home 107 children, the largest number ever 
housed at any one time. The number, however, might, by this 
time, have been much larger if our income had warranted the ad- 
ditional expenditure. The applications continue as heretofore, 
among them many worthy cases, which we are compelled to either 
turn away or to put off until a vacancy occurs. While the Ad- 
mission Committee is justified in this course, the members feel 
themselves much hampered in their work and great injustice is 
done to many worthy orphans. This state of affairs should no long- 
er be permitted to exist in such a large community as Philadelphia, 
whose citizens have always supported every noble charity so lib- 
erally. We cannot permit our Jewish orphans to go to other de- 
nominations for support, and when such a case occurs it is im- 
mediately drawn to our attention and peremptory orders given 
that the children must be taken care of by us. Cases of this kind 
have occurred recently, and must occur again if we cannot pro- 
vide for them." 

In the report for 1897 of the Jewish Hospital Association of 
Philadelphia, it is stated that the Jewish population of Philadel- 
phia is about 50,000, but the contributors to the Hospital number 
only 1,242. The regular contributors to the Orphan Asylum are 
not materially in excess of those to the Hospital. It will be ob- 
served from the report that for want of funds the Orphan Asylum 
has been compelled, habitually, to turn away worthy applicants 
for admission. Should this condition of affairs exist, even though 
no additional revenues can be obtained? These 107 children are 
housed in a palace; they are the recipients of donations of food, 
clothing, and a vast variety of comforts and luxury, the value of 
which is not charged as part of the expenses. And yet, without 
counting rent, which among the poor is always a very consider- 
able item, it costs, in round figures, $200 per annum to maintain 
each of these orphans. If interest be computed upon the value of 
the Asylum, by way of rent, this per capita would be largely in- 
creased. Other things being equal, it is more economical to 
house, feed and clothe a large number of people under a single 



172 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

organization than it would be to house, feed and clothe the same 
number of people separately or under smaller organizations. 

The Cleveland Orphan Asylum in 1897 reported 500 orphans, 
with an annual expenditure of about $60,000, making the per 
capita expense $120 per annum as against $200 per annum at the 
smaller asylum in Philadelphia. 

I think it safe to assume that the cost of maintaining an adult I 
is ordinarily twice that of maintaining a child. An average fam- 
ily consists of man, wife and five children, or what would be the 
equivalent of nine children. At $200 per annum for each child, 
the expenses of an ordinary family would be $1,800 per annum; 
but in order to be on a parity with these asylums, such a family 
should have no rent to pay, no taxes to pay, no doctor's bills, and 
should receive many donations of clothing, fuel, food, transporta- 
tion, etc., from day to day and almost daily. If the head of a 
family had a fixed income of $1,800 and house rent free, with im- ■ 
munity from taxes and doctor's bills, and should pose as an ob- 
ject of charity, he would be denounced as an unworthy creature. 
Indeed, under such favorable circumstances, he would be ex- 
pected not only to support his family and rear his children 
in comfort, but even to make some small savings. I do not doubt 
that we have many among us on this occasion whose income does 
not exceed the sum I have mentioned and who from it must pay 
not only the expenses of maintenance that are properly chargeable 
against the orphans, but house rent and doctor's bills. Again, I 
find in some asylums that about $1,000 is employed permanently 
for the housing of each orphan. Applying this same ratio to an 
ordinary family, the poor man's home should be estimated at 
$9,000. But the per capita cost of housing 100 or 150 people in 
one building is relatively smaller than to house the same number 
of people in fifteen or twenty different buildings. It follows that 
if the ordinary family were housed and sheltered in the same 
style as is maintained in some of our orphan asylums, the poor 
man's home would be an exceedingly expensive affair. When 
such things stare us in the face, can we be satisfied with the state- 
ment that there are many orphans denied admission to our asy- 
lums because of want of funds? Do not wisdom and justice sug- 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS, TENN. 173 

gest that we should adopt a different policy so as to materially 
reduce the per capita cost and increase the number of inmates? 
Moreover, leaving aside the question of cost, and assuming that 
our means are adequate to take care of all the deserving ones in 
the style which has been hitherto observed, is it well for the little 
ones that they should be reared in luxury, so to speak, and after 
a childhood passed under such circumstances, be launched out to 
fight the world with no resources ? They may be well educated, 
well disciplined in morals and manners, but coming as they do 
from a little world of their own, in which there have been no 
storms and no trials, in which they have felt no sorrows and en- 
dured no hardships, in which they have learned no self-reliance 
nor cultivated any aggressiveness, in which every want has been 
filled for them by the kind and tender hands of others, they enter 
the world under the greatest disadvantages. They are like flow- 
ers that have been reared in a hot-house and suddenly compelled 
to endure the chill blasts of winter. 

We need reform in the administration of our charitable or- 
ganizations. We must seek to make them havens and not heavens, 
and as havens they should be broad enough and roomy enough 
to take in all who require shelter and sustenance, and to that end 
let the sustenance and shelter be so modest in quality and 
measured in quantity as to be sufficient and no more. This, in 
my humble judgment, will be charity of a loftier nature than to 
endow a few victims of misfortune with every comfort and lux- 
ury, while other equally deserving sufferers receive nothing but 
our sympathy. 

Doubtless these criticisms will not be received on every hand 
in the same spirit in which they are uttered. We are all prone 
to object to fault-finding which is directed towards ourselves. I 
shall sincerely deplore any resentment engendered by my words. 
My criticisms have a great object in view and should be received 
with kindness. If I am correct the accused stand convicted of 
no greater offense than being too generous, and reforms will fol- 
low ; if, on the other hand, I am wrong, it will be an easy matter 
to show my error. Let the subject be discussed calmly but ear- 
nestly. Let the statistics be gathered from other institutions, espe- 



174 L£ N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

cially non- Jewish, and let comparisons be made. Such investi- 
gation will demonstrate, that if orphans be housed in cheap but 
healthful quarters, fed and clothed as befits people in humble cir- 
cumstances, at least two can be reared for what it now costs us to 
rear one. If such a suggestion makes me appear harsh to the 
wards within our walls, let it be remembered that I am consider- 
ate of those without. If your eyes swim at the thought of cur- 
tailing the comforts now enjoyed by our proteges, I ask what of 
those who demand our protection and are wholly denied? He is 
not a good father who feeds a favored few of his children on 
dainties, while the others are permitted to go hungry. 

If I have singled out our Orphan Asylums to comment upon 
it must not be understood that the objections raised apply to them 
alone. On the contrary, the objections obtain generally to our 
eleemosynary institutions. Happily our own Orphan Asylum at 
New Orleans is exempt from many of the criticisms I have ut- 
tered. No orphan has yet been denied admission to that refuge, 
but let us heed the experience of others and look far into the fu- 
ture. In the report of President Gabe Kahn, dated March 20, 
1898, occurs this significant sentence: "The wants of our Home 
are constantly increasing ; so is the population of this city and of 
the entire South, from which demands on our resources may be 
expected to come in ever-growing quantities." 

But I may be asked to indicate somewhat more specifically 
than I have, how a practical remedy may be found for the evils 
to which I have adverted. In reply I would say that I have al- 
ready pointed out that to the young men and to the young women 
among our people must be left the solution of these and kindred 
problems. I have also indicated that their work must be accom- 
plished through organization. It remains to be considered wheth- 
er a new organization is required. I think not. 

We have one already that has been in existence for more than 
a half century, that is not only co-extensive with the limits of this 
country, but has established a firm foothold in Europe, Asia and 
Africa. It has a history of which it may be proud, and if in that 
history are to be found countless errors and failures, it must not 



ORATION DELIVERED AT MEMPHIS,, TENN. 175 

be forgotten that it has outlived them all and has survived by vir- 
tue of its inherent forces operating to good ends. 

The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith does not derive uni- 
versal support among the Jews. It is not fashionable. Like all 
organizations that are democratic and catholic in their make-up 
and operations, it has excited hostility in the breasts of those who 
are exclusive, and disposed to set themselves upon a plane higher 
than that occupied by the general mass of their fellows. It is 
further opposed because at times it has taken up work not calcu- 
lated to arouse the loftiest sentiments and has occasionally been 
diverted from its best missions. Moreover, it has had among its 
leaders, from time to time, some men who were personally unpop- 
ular, or who employed the organization to promote selfish ambi- 
tions and finally, for want of better leadership it has, time and 
again, fallen into a state of inertia which indicated to the super- 
ficial observer that it had outlived its usefulness. That it has sur- 
vived all these adversities should excite serious reflection in the 
minds of every Jew having at heart the future welfare of his peo- 
ple. This brotherhood, like all human organizations, is full of 
infirmities, but these are either accidental or incidental and not in- 
herent, and underlying all and pervading all is a vital and en- 
during force which called it into being, and will perpetuate it as 
long as that principle is dear to our people. This vital and en- 
during force is philanthropy, not upon any narrow grounds, but 
upon the broadest principles of humanity — a philanthropy that 
looks to succoring the widow and the orphan, the poor and the 
needy, the helpless and the distressed; to encouraging science, 
literature and art, to elevating the mental and moral nature of 
our race. Such a platform is sound enough and broad enough 
to invite upon it every Jew without respect to the shade of his re- 
ligious belief, the country of his nativity, his avocation in life, or 
his social station. The mission of the B'nai B'rith is not ended, 
nor will it be as long as grave problems confront our people. The 
first and most successful Jewish fraternal order will not perish 
from the earth, although it may lie dormant at times for lack of 
leaders among us quick to perceive the problems that beset us, 
and ready to labor for their solution. 



170 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Among the young men are to be found such leaders. I have 
an abiding faith that they will not only preserve what has been 
achieved but add new glories to the record made. They will not, 
in utter selfishness, deny themselves to their suffering brothers, 
or in utter folly hope to aid them without organization. They 
will not refuse their aid because this organization is not perfect 
in its operations, but on the contrary, with true American ag- 
gressiveness, will take part to correct its shortcomings. They 
will not because of their own happiness hug the delusion that oth- 
ers are free of misery, but on the contrary, out of gratitude for 
the blessings they enjoy, will labor to make others happy. We 
need and we call for such reinforcements in our war against pov- 
erty, ignorance and disease. 

In the successful conduct of this war lies fame — if that be a 
desideratum to any member — but above and far more reaching 
than this is the satisfaction that will come to him who has ex- 
hibited in some practical manner his love for his fellow-men. And 
so I say to the young men and the young women, to whom these 
words may come, there is no field of labor that more directly chal- 
lenges the exercise of your highest energies than that which I 
have pointed out. To the extent that you have the power to 
study and grasp these problems, possess yourselves thereof, and 
with patience, courage and utter sinking of self, labor to solve 
them. Every effort in such a direction is a prayer to which you 
will find a full and adequate response whenever you have suc- 
ceeded in substituting a smile for a tear and a laugh for a groan. 
If you shrink from taking up such work because it will bring you 
into unpleasant associations, or involve you in labor, or subject 
you to disappointments and even to affronts, do not forget that 
great works cannot be achieved without great sacrifices, and that 
when duty beckons, we should respond with ready feet, though 
the road be obstructed and full of thorns. You have inherited a 
history that imposes sacrifices upon you, and by making them you 
will bequeath to those who follow you, a history fit to be linked 
with that which vour fathers made. 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 

BY LEO N. LEVI. 

How goodly are thy tents, Oh Jacob! thy tabernacles, Oh 
Israel.— (24 Numbers 5.) 

PREFACE. 

In May, 1884, the writer had occasion to deliver a speech in 
which he set forth his views upon some of the subjects discussed 
in this volume. At the conclusion of his remarks he was urged 
to allow them to be published. The speech being extemporaneous 
this was not feasible at the time, but under the impulse of the 
moment a promise was made that his views should be committed 
to paper, by the speaker. The result was a series of papers pre- 
pared during such leisure as was afforded by a busy professional 
life, and which papers were published serially in the "American 
Israelite" under the title of "The Jews of Today." 

The most flattering reception was accorded to this essay and 
no little discussion was provoked by the ideas advanced therein. 
From all parts of the country the author has been earnestly re- 
quested to publish his work in a more convenient and durable 
form. Thus moved, he has revised and corrected it as well as 
could be done in the limited time at his disposal, and he now ven- 
tures to submit it to the charitable criticism of the public. 

LEO N. LEVI. 

Galveston, Texas, July 4, 1887. 



177 



INTRODUCTION. 

It is my purpose to discuss the present status and consequent 
duties of the Jews, and especially of those residing in the United | 
States of America. 

It may become necessary at times in the course of this essay, I 
to take a hasty glance at the larger and most general outlines i 
of modern Jewish history. No effort, however, will be made 
to convey such information as it is the province of the historian J 
to impart. This is in no sense of the word an historical effort, 
and it is addressed to those who are presumed to be familiar 
with the traditions and chronicles of the Jews. From the his- 
tory of this people I shall, however, seek to obtain support for 
the propositions I shall advance. 

Naturally enough, considering the purpose of my work, I 
shall address myself principally to my co-religionists. I shall, 
so far as I may be able, confine myself to a conservative exam- 
ination and discussion of my subject. I recognize, however, the 
probability of a surrender at times to those sentiments which s 
naturally arise from blood, birth and education. I presume I 
am not more free than other men from ordinary human weak- 
nesses, and I desire to apologize in advance for any enthusiasm 
that may savor of extravagance. 

For the Jewish faith I have that veneration which is due to 
the oldest and most enduring of all religions ; and for the people ' 
who have practiced and preserved it for thousands of years I 
have the most unbounded admiration. As each succeeding cen- 
tury unfolds to wider scope the history of the world, more 
apparent becomes the sublimity and grandeur of that portion 
of it which pertains to the Jew. The traveler in passing through 

i 7 8 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 179 

a valley, fails to acquire a knowledge of its outlines, its extent, 
or its general features. The murmur of the brook, the music of 
the trees, the odor of the flowers, the verdure of the sward, 
attract and intoxicate the eye, but familiar acquaintance with 
these details does not leave a general and comprehensive idea 
of the whole. But when the limits of the valley are reached, 
and the wearied traveler climbs the summit of a hill, he turns 
and sees, not the lovely flowers and trees and lawns that erst- 
while so delighted him — they are merged in the larger outlines 
of the landscape — but his eye takes in the boundaries of the 
valley, notes the relative position of each hill and wood, and 
traces through the scene the silvery thread of the winding 
stream. The little delights and sweet sensations produced by 
the brook's babble, or the gay colors of a wild flower, are no 
longer experienced, but in their stead is the quiet satisfaction 
of viewing a wide landscape, beautiful in its outlines, and has- 
monious in its blending of light and shade. The future is to 
history like the mountain to the valley. It is only when the 
details of events are lost in their larger outlines that we can 
take a comprehensive view of them and understand their true 
relation to other events and to history as a whole. 

No feature in the landscape of the past is so prominent as 
the Jew; none so full of interest, none so fruitful of the lessons 
that may and should be drawn from what has transpired. To 
make a comprehensive history of the Jew is to write a history 
of the world. He is associated with its genesis, its government 
and its destiny. He furnished the medium through which was 
promulgated a code of general laws, comprised in hardly a dozen 
sentences, yet so complete that it embraces the whole course of 
life, and so correct that its justice is not questioned. The great- 
est exemplars of all that is true, beautiful, good, wise and pow- 
erful in humanity were Jews. From their ranks were drawn 
the greatest lawgiver, the wisest ruler, the most valiant warrior, 
and sweetest singer, and the most celebrated of all, that lowly 
man whose sinless life and martyrdom on the cross founded 
a religion that numbers its devotees by millions in every civilized 
portion of the globe. 



l8o LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

There is much that is dark and unattractive in the history 
of the Jews, but these blemishes serve to bring out in more vivid 
contrast the prevailing colors of virtue and truth. It is not to 
be wondered at, that they should inspire interest, admiration 
and respect in every bosom ; it should excite amazement that any 
Jew should be wanting in pride of race. Entertaining such 
views, it is not unlikely that I shall give way at times to senti- 
ments inspired by them. Perhaps I am an enthusiast, because 
of the prevalence among many contemporaneous American Jews 
of an indifference to the ancient traditions of their race. The flint 
throws out no spark save when much enforced. But for that 
indifference, I should not perhaps have been stirred to the con- 
viction that if we are to fulfill our manifest destiny we must 
preserve our integrity as a people, and that to preserve our in- 
tegrity it is necessary to be loyal to the teachings and traditions 
of our fathers. 

Before proceeding, however, to the discussion of the prob- 
lems presented by the present status of the Jews in the United 
States, let us pause to consider the causes which have brought 
about the remarkable developments in Jewish history now ex- 
hibited in this country. 

There are at present, according to the accepted estimates, 
between 300,000 and 400,000 Jews in the United States of 
America. The vast majority of these are composed of those 
who came to this country within the last half century, and of 
their descendants. The Jewish immigrants to the United States 
of America have come principally from Germany, Poland and 
Russia. The causes which led them to forsake their native 
shores were,' in a large measure, the same which influenced the 
immigrant at large. Persecution and oppression at home and 
the inborn desire for liberty, impelled the Jews of tyrannical 
Germany and Russia to seek new homes in a country of such 
great opportunities as ours. 

Naturally enough, the majority of the immigrants was com- 
posed of those who were unable to achieve a comfortable liveli- 
hood and a respectable position in society at home and conse- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. l8l 

quently the morale of the early Jewish population of the United 
States was not of a very high standard. 

The revolution of 1848 in Germany, however, influenced a 
great many highly educated Jews to come to America where 
they might express their views without fear of governmental 
interference. 

The leaven of intelligence which thus entered into the Jewish 
colony in America, was productive of great results. There was 
already present as the result of an early exodus from Europe, 
a small, but highly cultured and very proud representation of 
the Portuguese and Spanish Jews commonly called Sephardim. 
They esteemed themselves the aristocracy of the Jews and looked 
down upon the Ashkenazim, as the German and Polish Jews 
are called, with the contempt ordinarily exhibited towards in- 
feriors. This haughty exhibition on the part of the Sephardim 
speedily kindled a spirit of resentment on the part of the liberty- 
loving Germans, who had forsaken their homes in order that 
they might enjoy the blessings of freedom. 

The Sephardim have always been conservative in their main- 
tenance of the traditional religion of the Jews, and the customs 
of their ancestry, and even an atmosphere of liberty has not 
caused them to forsake the traditions of their fathers. Aris- 
tocracies are proverbially conservative and this perhaps may 
explain why the haughty Portuguese have been so slow to adopt 
innovations, even with respect to insignificant rites, ceremonies 
and forms. 

No such influence was brought to bear upon the German 
immigrant to America. The German Jew is not only a demo- 
crat by nature, but more than that, he has been so long subjected 
to oppression, tyranny and contumely, that in his native country 
he is apt to consider himself an inferior and thus fall below the 
level of true manhood. 

The history of the Jews in Germany, and in the German prin- 
cipalities, is one long chapter of tyrannical oppression, resulting 
as it was designed to result, in the degradation of this devoted 
people. 

In the early part of this century when the money and the 



l82 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

muscle of the Jews were required by the German states to off- 
set and overthrow the boundless ambition of Napoleon I, extraor- 
dinary privileges were granted to the Jews in order to secure 
their patriotic services against the little corporal, but as soon as 
the Corsican was overthrown and France humiliated by repeated 
disasters, the privileges that were extended to the Jews were 
withdrawn and their condition, if anything, became more unen- 
durable than before. The seeds of the French revolution which 
had inspired Klopstock to write his matchless songs of liberty, 
found mellow soil in Germany, and the plant that began its pre- 
carious existence during the blood-shed of the first years of the 
century, had arisen to proportions that were deemed disastrous 
to monarchy before half the century had expired. It is unneces- 
sary to review the events of 1848 ; suffice it to say, that not a few 
among the revolutionists were Jews and that a considerable 
number of those who were proscribed by the government at 
home, fled to the United States for refuge. 

The effect of suddenly acquired liberty upon one who has been 
restricted, and as it were, enslaved, is always an enthusiasm that 
borders upon mental intoxication. As the schoolboy, when dis- 
missed from his studies exhibits his exultation in shouts and 
riotous play, so the oppressed citizen when he escapes from the 
restrictions and tyranny to which he has been subjected, indulges 
in exhibitions of delight, that in a larger measure are like unto 
the ebulitions of the liberated schoolboy. So we find, that the 
German immigrant of 1848, released as he was by his exodus 
from Europe, from the confinements and the fetters of a monar- 
chal government, became a democrat of the extremest type. 
The people became his God, and anything that savored of gov- 
ernmental power, was obnoxious. Extremes beget extremes : the 
pendulum that is swung beyond the natural limit of its vibration 
on one side, will pass beyond that limit when it returns to the 
other. A later and more unhappy illustration of this disposition 
of human nature, is to be found in the fact, that the Socialism, 
Nihilism and Anarchism which now prevail in the United States 
of America, are almost entirely supported by foreign born citizens 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 183 

who escaped to this country because they could not endure the 
oppression of Europe. 

It must be remembered, that in Germany, as in France, all 
churches are institutions of the government, the synagogue not 
excepted. In France Napoleon undertook after a fashion to 
revive the Sanhedrin, and in Germany for many years there has 
been a connection betwen the government and the synagogue by 
which the Rabbis were stipendiaries of the state and were invested 
by the government with a large measure of ecclesiastical 
authority. This authority thus based and armed with the power 
of execution operated as a restriction upon liberty, thought and 
action in religious matters and it is not to be doubted that the 
authority was not unfrequently exercised in a most arbitrary 
manner. 

The fact that such great reformers arose in Germany as 
Holdheim, Frankel, Geiger and others, is sufficient evidence to 
prove that there were abuses in the Jewish church of Germany. 
As in ancient times, there was a disposition to make form of 
greater importance than substance, and to make piety consist of 
the slavish adherence to rites, ceremonies and customs, which, 
whatever may have been their utility or effectiveness in other 
days, inspired but little respect in the nineteenth century. 

It is not uncommon for the public to confound the tenets of 
a religion with the forms in which worship is conducted, and 
when forms, rites and ceremonies engender disrespect or ridi- 
cule, the essential doctrines of the religion suffer in consequence. 

The liberation of the German Jews who immigrated to the 
United States of America about the middle of this century, from 
all kinds of governmental interference in private, social and 
religious matters was not slow in its effect upon the Jewish 
religion. Those who had in many instances against their better 
judgment and against their sentiment been compelled to practice 
forms and ceremonies which inspired them with no respect, now 
found an opportunity to disregard them without fear of any evil 
consequences personal to themselves. The result of this new 
found liberty exhibited itself at once in the disuse and the abroga- 
tion of certain practices and forms by no means essential to the 



184 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

preservation of the religion, and which were perhaps better dis- 
carded than retained. Rabbis who had been educated abroad in 
the old school finding this iconoclastic spirit, catered to it rather 
than undertook to restrain it and as each Rabbi who instituted a 
new reform was hailed as a great leader in Israel, a species of 
emulation arose among the Jewish divines as to which of them 
could outstrip the rest in discarding time-honored form and 
religious practices. The conservatism of the Sephardim so far 
from restraining this tendency, rather stimulated it by reason of 
their undisguised contempt for the Ashkenazim. The latter 
naturally enough disregarded what to their hated co-religionists 
was sacred. 

In 1835 a ver y slight change was sought to be introduced in 
the Jewish ritual at Charleston, S. C, but at that time the radical 
element which afterwards came to this country having no expo- 
nents here, the movement failed for want of support. Twenty- 
five years later scarcely a synagogue in the United States was 
as conservatively conducted as it was proposed that the reform 
synagogue of Charleston should be. The ancient prayer books 
were laid aside and new rituals or Minhags were introduced. The 
men and women worshipped together, the organ and choir were 
introduced, the prayers were read in the vernacular of the coun- 
try, and in many other ways changes and innovations were inau- 
gurated, so that as has frequently been said, if an ancient Israelite 
should enter the modern temple, he would not recognize the serv- 
ices as being those of a Jewish church. There was no influence 
in the United States to restrain this tendency towards radicalism. 
There was no hierarchy in the synagogue, no authority vested 
in any Rabbi, no tribunal to which an appeal could be made in 
disputed cases. The pruning knife which was first applied only 
to forms and ceremonies that had outlived their usefulness, was 
applied from time to time to the very body of the religion itself, 
and as each daring innovator excited more or less admiration, 
and achieved a notoriety, which in his vanity he misconstrued for 
fame, a stimulus was offered for new excursions in this tempting 
field. The men of the cloth being thus so swift in their progress 
from everything that was ancient and traditional, naturally 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 185 

enough engendered in the minds of the laity, the reflection that 
what was so easily altered, modified and set aside by human 
hands, could not be respected as of divine workmanship. The 
traditions which had been looked upon by them in their youth as 
sacred and beyond the pale of human interference, were now 
analyzed for them by specious pleaders and shown to be but idle 
nonsense. This was undermining the church itself, for as soon 
as the laity lost their respect for the traditional in Judaism, the 
whole structure ceased to inspire them with that affectionate awe 
which is always accorded to the time-honored and ancient. 

It is not my purpose to trace from its origin to its present 
status, the so-called reform movement of America. To other 
and abler hands this task must be left. I merely desire to call 
attention to its rapid progress and to its extreme tendency, in 
order that I may show, as I think it is clear that to this reform 
movement is attributable altogether the indifference exhibited by 
the American Jews for everything that pertains to their lineage, 
their history and their destiny. 

Among other things introduced by the so-called reform Rabbis 
of the United States, was the doctrine that .the Jews were only 
such by reason of their creed and that their creed consisted of 
pure Monotheism and the practice of righteousness. The race 
idea was discountenanced as being obnoxious to the genius of the 
government under which we enjoy the greatest liberties accorded 
to us since we ceased to be a nation. 

At Pittsburg in 1885, a conference of American Rabbis even 
went so far I believe as to promulgate in what was called "The 
Postulates of Reason" that the Jews were no longer a race, but 
simply a religious community. 

This pronunciamento, which was to be expected as the result 
of all the radicalism that preceded it, was hoped would strike a 
responsive chord in the breast of the American Jews. I may have 
occasion before I complete this effort to consider the correctness 
of the proposition that we are simply a religious community and 
not a race. Nothing to my mind is more pregnant with error 
than this postulate of unreason. However, whether it be correct 
or not, it was so often preached from the pulpit and so frequently 



l86 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

found a lodgement in the minds of the laity, that doubts of the 
gravest nature have arisen in the minds of the American Jews as 
to the perpetuity of the Jews as a people. In every controversy 
there is to be found a large element wanting in any fixity of prin- 
ciples and in any elements of courage ; people who wait until the 
progress of the struggle indicates where the victory will lie and 
then join the strongest forces. This unfortunate weakness of 
human nature is well understood by the politician and hence in 
every political battle we find each party long in advance of the 
struggle claiming an easy victory. The doubt having arisen in 
the minds of many American Jews as to the perpetuity of the 
Jews as a people, and the conviction having been forced upon 
many that our days were numbered, and that we would be 
merged in, and swallowed up by the mass of humanity at large, 
there was engendered, not only an indifference as to this result, 
but many positively desired to hasten its accomplishment. This 
is not the first time in the history of the Jews that such doubts 
and convictions have arisen, and history affords examples of con- 
versions of large numbers of Jews to other religions, simply in 
deference to what was conceived to be the unavoidable and inevi- 
table extinction of the Jews. A few years since, some of the 
most thoughtful minds in this country had become gravely 
impressed with the idea that we were at the beginning of the 
end, and he who was daring enough to raise his voice against the 
tendency of the hour, was derided as striving to accomplish the 
impossible. 

This conviction was not confined to those who desired the 
result which it portended, for many accepted it gloomily enough 
as a truth which they claimed was irresistible. The writer never 
shared this view, but has constantly been one of those who under- 
took to breast the torrent and to stay the hand of the destroyer. 
The work which he now projects is in that direction. When it 
was begun, the whole sky was dark with clouds and scarcely a 
ray of hope was to be discovered, but in the short space of time 
which has intervened between the inception and the completion 
of this effort, large rifts have been made and the sunshine of a 
future of promise for the Jews breaks over the landscape. 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. , 187 

The radicalism which culminated at Pittsburg in 1885, 
aroused a storm of indignation throughout the land which caused 
its collapse at Cincinnati in the summer of 1886. The Pittsburg 
conference which adjourned to meet at Cincinnati failed to con- 
vene. The new generation of American Jews free from the intoxi- 
cation resulting from sudden emancipation, and whose minds 
have developed in an atmosphere of liberty, look at the questions 
involved from a different locus standi from that adopted by the 
Jews of a former generation. The American born Jew has had 
the benefit of an American education. As has been said, he was 
born and has grown up in an atmosphere of liberty ; he knows no 
other condition. He is not impelled to license as the anti-climax 
of enslavement; he becomes not riotous, in need or thought by 
reason of any enfranchisement, for he has never been disfran- 
chised. Like most native born Americans, while ready to die for 
republican institutions, he recognizes that republicanism does 
not mean Anarchy and that the surrender of certain elements of 
individual liberty is a pre-requisite to the preservation and main- 
tenance of liberty. And so in religious matters, when he has 
come to contemplate the vast changes that have been made by 
irresponsible persons in so short a time and in deference to so 
sordid a spirit, his mind recoils and he refuses to recognize the 
right of any man to rudely lay his hands upon the traditions of 
his fathers. By his achievements in every sphere of life he has 
conquered the prejudice against his people and has claimed as his 
right, the respect of his fellow men. The triumphs of the Jews 
in the arts, literature, science and in finances has cast around the 
name of "Jew" a halo of which he is intensely proud. He is im- 
pelled to study the history of his people, to learn of their mar- 
tyrdom, their endurance and their triumphs, and since the his- 
tory of the Jews is inextricably interwoven with the religion of 
the Jews he has been compelled in studying their history to learn 
their religion. And he has learned that what is divinely ordained 
or derived from traditions that extends to a period whereof the 
memory of man runneth not to the contrary, may not be rudely 
cast aside, or brushed away by men, the fountain of whose au- 
thority extends not higher than themselves. For these so-called 



l88 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

reformers who halt not for sentiment nor reason he has no re- 
spect, but rather says with Cassius, 

"I had as lief not be, as live to be 
In awe of such a thing as I myself." 

The effort to decry the race character of the Jew, which of all 
others is the most absurd, finds no sympathy in the American 
Jew. I make these assertions now with no fear of a successful 
contradiction, for the developments of the past year furnish in- 
controvertible evidence of their truth. But while the educated 
and reflecting Jew is indisposed to be led by the revolutionists, 
few have any definite notions of what is the duty of the hour and 
the great mass of the people by reason of the indifference which 
has been planted, as has already been shown, in their natures have 
failed to give the subject any consideration whatsoever. There- 
fore the author believes that he performs a simple duty to pre- 
sent his reflections upon the status, the duties and the destiny of 
the Jews in this country, not in the hope that his views will prove 
acceptable to all those who read, but rather in the fond expecta- 
tion that those who read will be induced to reflect and to discuss 
the views that shall occur to them by reason of the stimulus I 
shall offer, and thus there may be evolved from a multitude of 
counsel that wisdom which the emergency requires. 

It is my purpose in the course of this essay to show that it is 
the duty and the policy of the Jews to preserve their solidarity, 
and that in order to secure such a result it is essential that the 
highest respect should be paid to the history and traditions of our 
people, to the preservation of our customs within certain limita- 
tions, and the practice of our religion with due deference to those 
ancient forms that were practiced by our ancestors in times of 
gravest adversity and peril; and this leads me first to inquire, 
should the Jews perpetuate their race, or suffer themselves to be 
merged into and assimilated by the different peoples of the earth ? 



CHAPTER I 

Wherein is Considered the Right and Duty of the Jews to Per- 
petuate Their Existence as a Distinct People. 

In considering the duty and policy of the Jews in respect of 
the preservation of their integrity as a people, it becomes neces- 
sary at the threshold to inquire into our right to remain an ex- 
clusive people. 

This involves the wide subject of whether there should be any 
distinct peoples, and if so, whether the distinction may be prop- 
erly made save upon national and territorial lines. It is con- 
tended, that as the Jews are only such because of a community 
of creed, that they may not persevere in their exclusiveness with- 
out violence to the proper sensibilities of their neighbors. Voltaire 
made this one of the chief bases of his strictures on the Jews 
and even to this day we hear complaints made of the clannishness 
of this remarkable people. If it were true that the Jews are such, 
simply because of a community of creed, it would be proper to 
inquire into the right of any religious community to segregate it- 
self and in a measure abstain from intercourse with the world 
at large, but it seems to me to be an idle discussion as to the 
propriety of certain facts which do not exist. 

It is not true in the first place that the Jews are abnormally 
clannish ; it is not true in the second place that the Jews are only 
Jews because of their religion. This idea has become prevalent 
because the Jews have no territorial and no temporal government 
and hence are not accorded the dignity of a race. History con- 
tains no record, so far as I am advised, of any distinct people pre- 
serving their manners, customs, traditions and laws, and what is 
more remarkable, the purity of their blood, without the cohesive 
power of a country, and a temporal government, except it be the 
Jews. The gypsies can certainly not be accorded so high a dis- 
tinction, and aside from them I know of none other that approxi- 

189 



I9O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

mates such an instance. At another place I shall discuss this re- 
markable characteristic of the Jewish people. For the present I 
must assume that the Jews are not simply an indiscriminate lot of 
people who hold to a common belief. A native Esquimaux, or 
American Indian might conscientiously adopt every tenet of the 
Jewish church, might practice every form and ceremony imposed 
by the Jewish laws and the Jewish ritual, and so far as the re- 
ligion is concerned, be a Jew, but yet, no one who will reflect for 
a moment would class them with the Jews as a people. If the 
truth were known, a very large percentage of so-called Christians 
would be found to be believers in the essentials of the Jewish re-, 
ligion, and yet, they are not Jews. It requires not only that men 
should believe in Judaism, but that they should be the descendants 
in direct line of that people who enjoyed a temporal government 
and who owned a country up to the time of the destruction of 
the second commonwealth. That great event took away from the 
Jews their country and their temporal government; it scattered 
them over the face of the earth, but it did not destroy the nation- 
al and race idea which was a part of their nature and of their 
religion, and though nearly two thousand years have elapsed since 
that memorable occasion, we find that there are more Jews today 
than there were then, richer in the enjoyment of liberty, greater 
in the exercise of power, further advanced in culture and with a 
strain of blood preserved by steady, direct and undefiled flow 
from the original source. 

Who shall say then, that the Jews are no longer a race ? The 
world numbers seven million of them among its population. 
When Moses led the Jews from Egypt to Palestine, it is estimated 
that there were three million of the children of Israel in his train. 
The seven million who now exist are the direct descendants of 
that chosen people. Certainly it will not be contended that a 
strip of territory over which a lot of men exercise dominion, nor 
that a form of government which men may exercise, constitute 
a race. Blood is the basis and sub-stratum of the race idea and 
no people on the face of the globe can lay claim with so much 
right to purity of blood, and unity of blood, as the Jews. Be it 
remembered, that I do not claim nationality for the Jews as such, 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. igi 

for they have had no such claim since Jerusalem was captured by 
the Romans, but nationality and the race quality are two separate 
and distinct things. It is well known that when The Netherlands 
were hard pressed by their enemies on one occasion, the grand 
idea was conceived of utilizing the vast amount of shipping in 
the Dutch ports for an exodus of the Hollanders and after their 
departure to cut the dikes and flood the country so that it might 
not become a prey to the national foe. Had this idea been carried 
into effect and the brave Netherlands had forsaken their country 
and gone abroad to populate as they designed, some distant land, 
would it be contended that they had lost their race character by 
reason of their exodus? It seems to me that such a conclusion 
would be most lame and impotent. If I have reasoned to any 
purpose, the inquiry of right in the premises is not to be limited 
to the Jews as the exponents of a particular creed, but to the 
Jews as a race. I recognize the anomaly presented by the fact 
that this race, as I claim them to be, is scattered over the face of 
the globe, divided up into many sections, and the different sec- 
tions owing allegiance to different governments, but what is 
there about the Jew that is not anomalous? In everything that 
pertains to him he is sui generis. There is nothing incompatible 
between the preservation on his part of the race idea, and the ut- 
most fealty to the government under which he lives. I need not 
discuss this, for there can be no conflict of allegiance to a mere 
idea, and a government. In his relation to his government, the 
American Jew is an American citizen. He observes the laws of 
his country, he contributes to the support of his country, he is 
ready to fight her battles abroad and to spend his last drop of 
blood and treasure in defence of her shores against any and every 
invader, and if the ranks of the enemy be composed of his co- 
religionists, yet will he regard them as his enemies, for neither 
his religion nor his race idea is ever suffered to interfere with his 
patriotism, nor his allegiance to the powers that be. (My son fear 
the Lord and the King Prov. 24-21). 

The inquiry therefore broadens into the question, should 
there be any classes among men — any distinctions because of 
race, nationality, complexion, customs, habits, etc.? 



192 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

There are theorists who would erase from the map of exist- 
ence every line that separates men from their fellow-men, classes 
from other classes, nations from other nations, and even con- 
tinents from continents ; and their efforts are lauded as the high- 
est and most enlightened philosophy by the same class of critics 
who extol a leaden-colored canvas as the perfect representation 
of the skies. There is much plausibility in the proposition that, 
as all men are men, endowed with the same physical and mental 
attributes, constituting a distinct class of animals, subject to be 
swayed by the same affections, manifesting like sentiments and 
sensations, they should be brothers in the most exalted meaning 
of the word. It is claimed, in the words of the great "apostle 
of freedom," that "all men are created free and equal;" that 
all men have equal rights ; and that there is something essentially 
and inherently false in any social or governmental system which 
makes distinctions among classes of men or among individuals. 
The vice of the argument lies in this : The enthusiast confounds 
a law of classification with a law of existence. What science 
has discovered for convenience of definition, has been accepted 
as the key-note in the scale of human duty. To explain further : 
A definition may be defined as that process by which any entity 
is assigned to its proximate genus and at the same time dis- 
tinguished from other members of the same class, by its specific 
difference. Thus negro is defined as a "man" (his proximate 
genus) "with black skin, flat nose and woolly hair" (his specific 
differences from other members of the human family). 

A moment's reflection will convince my readers that the 
process of definition is necessary to intercourse between man 
and man, and that the process was contemporaneous with the 
inception of the means of intercourse. In primitive times when 
travel was difficult and infrequent, the different classes of men 
were strangers to each other. The sons of Ham knew only 
their dusky companions, and to their minds the idea of man 
had no wider range than their own particular type. So, too, 
with the sons of Shem and Japhet. In the course of ages a 
great number of different types were developed in each of the 
great branches, and each type considered itself the family of 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. I93 

man. But time and travel acquainted men with other men. 
Herodotus discovered many species of men, and while he dis- 
tinguished them from the Greeks by many specific differences, 
yet there were enough characteristics in common between them 
all and the Greeks to assign them all to their proximate genus 
"man." This synthetic process by which the Caucasian, the 
Malay, the African, etc., are classed under a common designation 
has given rise to the fallacy that all men are men — and hence 
equal. It is perhaps true that all "men were created free and 
equal," but in all respects save their political rights their equality 
relates entirely to the particular moment of their creation. So- 
cially, morally and physically every man is different in degree 
of merit from every other man. Only before the law are all men 
equal. But equality before the law does not comprehend equality 
upon any other plane. The two propositions are entirely distinct. 
If it be true that because we are all members of the human family 
we are equal and should fraternize, it is equally true that 
all men and all cats are animals, and hence are equal 
and should fraternize. We have the quality of exist- 
ence in common with all entities — are we for this reason 
to be considered as violating a law of nature or a canon of duty, 
when we use an inanimate object for our own purposes without 
regard to its preservation or perpetuity? I appreciate the fact 
that by reversing this argument we may be led to the logical 
conclusion that any two objects, things or persons having specific 
differences are foreign to each other and should not fraternize. 
The answer to this is the solution of the whole problem. Nature 
has implanted in every animate creature a selfish spirit whose 
existence is necessary for the preservation of their natures. 
Selfishness is not only necessary for the existence of animate 
creatures, but it is the power under Heaven that works out the 
fate of the world. It is the keynote of all harmony, and is the 
basis of the highest virtues. The love of self brings order out 
of chaos, civilization out of barbarism, government out of 
anarchy, and compels the practice of the social virtues which 
otherwise would give way to social corruption. I do not employ 
the term selfishness to define that sordid and disgusting quality 



194 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

which the word vulgarly implies, but I use it in that compre- 
hensive sense which embraces the love and advancement of seif. 
It is the love of self which precludes all men from being brothers 
in the sense which enthusiasts would have us regard all men; 
it is the love of self which precludes each man from remaining 
to and for himself separate from his kind. Man is a social and 
a progenitive animal. As a social animal he seeks society ; as a 
progenitive animal he procreates. His self-love extends naturally 
to what is nearest and dearest to him. Self-love makes him 
jealous of the society and exclusive possession of his wife ; self- 
love makes him protect and care for his offspring and enforce 
obedience from them. Thus the family relation, the highest 
of earthly ties, grows out of self-love. Shall we deny the right 
of any man to love his wife, the mother of his children, better 
than he does a strange woman utterly unknown to him ? Selfish- 
ness makes every man care for the members of his own com- 
munity or society, for every community or society is formed for 
the benefit of its members, and each member must care for and 
protect all of the others in order that he may derive the benefits 
of the community or society. The process of thought is lost sight 
of in the daily occurrences of life, but an analysis of the ordinary 
affairs of the world will convince the most superficial thinker 
that not only is the world operated according to the law of self- 
ishness, but that without that law we would drift into chaos. 
It follows very clearly that by a natural law, the further is re- 
moved any person, object or thing from the existence of any 
man, the less will be his love for that person, object or thing. 
I do not mean physical propinquity of course, but I refer to the 
influence of relationship whether of blood, community of tastes, 
occupation, creeds, joys or dangers. The ratio, of course, is co- 
equal with that of relationship. 

It has been remarked that all entities have the quality of 
existence in common, but the relation is so slight that the love 
it elicits is very faint. If I may use a figure of speech I should 
compare love to the circle made on the surface of the sea by 
dropping a pebble in the water. At first it is distinct and well 
defined, but as it widens it grows fainter and fainter, until al- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 195 

though certainly still existent it is imperceptible. Every man 
bears some relation to all existence, and by reason and in the 
ratio of that relationship bears love thereto. But existence is 
composed of species beyond number. Comprehended in the im- 
measurable and infinite circle of existence are an infinite number 
of smaller circles, none of equal size, none concentric with 
another, none covering the same space, yet all related by the 
common circle which embraces all, which is contiguous im- 
mediately to the great circles representing the first classification 
of existences, and which great circles are contiguous to each 
other, and contain again within themselves the species which 
make up their hierarchy of existence. The tiniest snowdrop 
on Himalayas' loftiest height bears some relationship to the 
fieriest spark in the sun. The law of human nature which com- 
pels man's love to extend outward in all directions as the circle 
widens from the spot where the pebble gave it existence, does 
not impose upon him the duty of loving all things or all persons 
alike. Without difference in degrees of love according to re- 
lationship, we should be deprived of the holiest and most exalting 
ties and obligations and the sanctity of the home circle, the 
institution of marriage, the parental, filial and fraternal love 
would be swallowed up into that universal and uniform love, 
which would, after all, be but indifference. 

If I have argued to any purpose it must be clear that if all 
men are brothers it is because they are men, not because they 
are governed by a common fraternal feeling — Sum homo nihil 
humani a me alienum puto is a sentiment which with great 
propriety might be extended. In a different degree but of like 
nature is the truth, "I am an animal and I esteem nothing ani- 
mate as foreign to me." If I am asked at what point fraternity 
should cease, I can only say that the limits are regulated by 
circumstances. Wherever may be found a community of senti- 
ment, blood, circumstances, occupations, tastes, creeds, joys, sor- 
rows or dangers there will be found fraternal ties limited by 
the particular community which engendered them. This is the 
brotherhood of classes, and it is this fraternity which is derided 
and discouraged by the visionaries who exclaim that all men are 



I96 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

brothers, and there should be no castes, cliques, clans, nations 
or peoples. An universal brotherhood would no doubt follow 
the attainment of universal virtue and the perfection of the 
human family. When the standard of human perfection is 
discovered and all men attain that standard, then, and not till 
then will all men be brothers ; but as long as men entertain differ- 
ences of opinions so long will there be classes. If the formation 
of new classes could be discontinued, the classes now existing 
might be merged into one (although I doubt even this) ; but 
new classes must necessarily spring up. They may not come into 
existence by any name, they rarely do, but circumstances form 
them with unceasing regularity. 

It is in entire conformity with the laws of nature for men to 
unite in the pursuit of any legitimate object. Artists form so- 
cieties among themselves in which the "tie that binds" is the 
love and practice of art. In such a society creed or nationality 
go for naught, the open sesame and the ritual being art. To 
the soldier every soldier is a brother. Every profession has its 
freemasonry. Every devotee is a brother to the followers of 
his own faith. The subjects of every government are united by 
their common nationality. 

Such circumscriptions operate nothing against the usefulness 
of those thus circumscribed. We have all our parts to play, and 
in playing them we can neither enter every circle nor confine 
ourselves to one. There are certain duties which we owe to our 
fellow-men in return for the benefits we derive from the social 
state, and they must be performed. 

To do less is to violate the law of our obligations to society, 
which is the companion of the law of self-love in the govern- 
ment of the world. 

Society is composed of elements owing to one another cor- 
relative obligations, the prompt discharge of which is a pre- 
requisite to the orderly regulation and progress of the whole. 
Herbert Spencer compares society to an organic structure having 
parts and functions analogous to those of animate creatures 
in his comparison, "Government is represented by the regulative 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. I97 

functions of a living organism, and forms of government so 
many varieties of the structure." 

Professor Edmund Robertson, commenting in the Brittanica 
upon the views of Herbert Spencer, announces the familiar truth, 
that where men are united in groups there arises from their 
union the necessity of action in behalf of the group. "It is, of 
course, always a matter of difficulty to determine the exact 
nature and degree of obligation which individuals owe to society, 
for the reason^ principally, that the origin of society is lost in 
the obscurity of unexplored antiquity. If there ever was a time 
when society did not exist among the members of the human 
family in some form or other, history is silent as to that era." 

Various theories have been advanced in explanation of the 
genesis of society, all of them being plausible, and none entirely 
satisfactory. 

Professor Robertson in his article on government in the 
Brittanica, briefly, but clearly, considers the various theories 
that have been advanced, but he is unable to arrive at any con- 
clusion with reference to the subject, except the bare suggestion, 
that government had its origin in the family relation. Locke, in 
his essay on civil government, asserts, that men being by nature 
all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this 
estate and subjected to the political power of another, without 
his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself 
of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society, is 
by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community. 
Mr. John Stuart Mill in his essay on liberty and in his political 
economy declares in favor of the largest scope of individual 
liberty as being inherent and favors the doctrine of Humboldt, 
to-wit: "The absolute and essential importance of human de- 
velopment in its richest diversity." 

Herbert Spencer also maintains the natural and inherent 
liberty of individuals without restriction and that government and 
society are founded upon the voluntary surrender by individuals 
of a portion of the liberties Which are a part and parcel of their 
nature and birthright. 

According to such eminent authority, and plainly in accord- 



I98 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

ance with reason, it would seem then that all men are born 
with the right to do as they please, and that this liberty of action 
is only curtailed by the requirements of society and government, 
which themselves are the creatures of the individuals. Society 
and government both were created and are maintained by the 
operation of that law of self-love on the part of individuals, of 
which I have already spoken. In the absence of civil society, 
and of government, the individual must look solely to himself 
for the protection of his own welfare, his life, his liberty and 
his property. This constant vigilance, and perhaps this constant 
state of war, as Hobbes would have us believe, was the case 
with primitive man, was naturally distasteful, and to accomplish 
its abrogation, the "social compact" was formed, either by ex- 
press agreement, or what is more probable, by the natural growth 
of implied obligations. The stronger were compelled to sur- 
render their advantages by combinations among the weak, and 
thus the basis was laid for measuring in a manner, the extent 
of the surrender by each individual of a portion of his inherent 
liberty. The first law of society, as of nature, was order. The 
preservation of the peace and the pursuit of the ordinary avoca- 
tions of life without the constant menace of interference from 
without, must have been the primary aims of those who leagued 
together in the construction of some kind of social organization. 
With the progress of time the scope of society's duties widened, 
the governmental sphere was extended and the advantages of- 
fered by them to the individual gradually multiplied. There arose 
accordingly a correlative increase of obligations on the part of 
the individual to society and to government. The discharge of 
these obligations by the individual to his fellow-men, to society 
and to government, are in strict conformity with the law of 
self-love which primarily regulates his course of life, for he 
recognizes at a glance that any failure on his part begets failures 
on the part of others and anarchy will speedily follow. The 
citizen who maintains the law, is as often actuated by selfish 
considerations as by patriotism and an exalted sense of duty. 
Whatever may be the motive, however, for the discharge of 
these duties, it is patent enough that they must be discharged, 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 199 

and since our duty to society and to government is next in point 
of importance to the duty which we owe our Creator, obligations 
that »we may assume of less solemnity must perforce yield if 
they come in conflict with our duty to society, or our govern- 
ment. 

If I have made myself clear, it easily follows that there is 
no danger to society, nor to the government under which we 
live, in the maintenance of certain species of class distinctions. 
The right to unite and to organize for any purpose is inherent, 
for it is a part of individual liberty, and it is only limited by 
our obligation to our Creator, our government and to our fellow- 
men. 

It follows that the formation or maintenance of any circle 
that operates against the good of society, present or prospective, 
or interferes with the performance of individual duty to society 
or God, should be discouraged; that any circle which does not 
operate thus prejudicially, but which in anywise contributes to 
the enjoyment, elevation or advantage of its members, should 
be encouraged. If it be remembered that perfect virtue in the 
whole human family would bring about universal brotherhood, 
every circle which promotes a virtue will be recognized as a 
means to the great end, even though it have the appearance of 
a step in the wrong direction. Heat is a great curative agency 
in treating burns. 

Nature is full of arguments in support of the propositions 
that I have advanced, for, within the almost incomprehensible 
unity of nature is comprised innumerable classes. Science has 
undertaken as great a task in analyzing genera into their various 
species by analysis, as it has in resolving species into genera by 
synthesis. If the visionary contends that it is foreign to the law 
of nature that men should divide themselves into classes, it 
need only be suggested that nature herself presents us with 
ineffaceable class distinctions. The Mongolian and the Cauca- 
sian are both men, but nature, or rather their creator, has en- 
dowed each with qualities, and invested each with peculiarities 
that mark them as distinct types of the human family and so 
through the whole range of the animal, the vegetable and the 
mineral kingdoms we find entities that have a sufficient number 



200 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

of common qualities to be classed under a given genus, and 
yet possessing sufficient specific differences to be placed under 
different classifications. Not only so, but nature places her 
seal of condemnation upon any undue intermixture of incon- 
gruous elements. The hybrid and the mongrel are proverbially 
inferior, and of them it has been said that they partake of the 
worst qualities of both parents, and the good qualities of neither. 
If the general doctrine which I have assailed were true, then 
miscegenation between the African and Caucasian would be a 
virtue, rather than a violation of a natural law. 

I have already shown that the distinctive character of the 
Jew does not arise solely from his religion. It is true that his 
race and religion are indissolubly connected, a fact which arises 
in the main from the theocratic form of government under 
which the Jews existed as a nation, but whatever be the cause 
of this junction of the race idea with the religion, it is very cer- 
tain that the religion alone does not constitute the people. As 
I have already maintained, a believer in the Jewish faith does 
not by reason of that fact become a Jew. On the other hand, 
however, a Jew by birth remains a Jew, even though he abjures 
his religion. Disraeli recognized this, and though he professed 
to be a sincere Christian, always claimed to be a Jew. 

Assuming then that I have established that there is no in- 
herent wrong in the preservation of the solidarity of the Jew 
as a people, it remains to apply the arguments which I have 
adduced in support of this proposition to the particular subject 
that we have in hand. 

To apply the argument to the Jews is not without difficulty. 
General principles are often easily deducible from a multitude 
of examples, but when deduced it is not easy to apply them. 
It is not doubtful that if the Jews are benefited by remaining 
Jews in fact as well as in name, and no overbalancing injury is 
done to society thereby, they should perpetuate their existence 
as Jews. I leave out of consideration all questions of religious 
duty. This is not a discussion from a religious but from a 
social standpoint. Aside from all considerations of religion, to 
my mind it is clear that the Jew should remain a Jew, and the 
Jews as such should preserve their integrity as a distinct people. 



CHAPTER II. 

Wherein is Considered the Possibility of Perpetuating the Exist- 
ence of the Jews as a Distinct People. 

Before entering into the consideration of the propriety and 
expediency of preserving the distinctive character of the Jews as 
a people, it is proper to pause and consider the possibility of ac- 
complishing such a result. It is contended, that as all things 
change and pass away, so too will the Jews suffer a radical alter- 
ation in their constitution and gradually pass out of existence. 
The pages of history are pointed to in support of the prophecy 
that in the course of human events this great people who have ex- 
isted so long, will cease to be. In other words, that it is inevita- 
ble destiny, and if this be true, it is said, why struggle against 
the inevitable? I do not share this view, and I beg the patience 
of the reader while I submit the reasons which impel me to dis- 
credit such gloomy forebodings. 

There is always something pathetic in the decay of power. 
The strong man whose strength fails him always excites com- 
miseration. It is the inevitable in every life, but like death, which 
none may hope to escape, it draws forth a sigh of regret, none 
the less tender and heartfelt because wholly in vain. The history 
of nations is fraught with a like pathetic destiny. Gibbon, of 
whom it was said, "that he was the only historian of the 
eighteenth century who survived the criticism of the nineteenth," 
remarks in his great history of "Rome's Decline and Fall," 
that "the history of all nations may be written in five words — 
valor, greatness, discord, degeneracy and decay." Is this true of 
the Jews? Are we, too, passing along the great highway of de- 
cay in obedience to any inexorable law ? I trust, I believe not. If 
so, however, this appeal is in vain. Therefore I pause to consider 
that rule. Gibbon's sentence is dramatic, brilliant, climacteric and 
striking; it is not without serious claims to accuracy besides. It 

20I 



202 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

is obnoxious to criticism as being a prominent and attractive 
fragment of that philosophy of history which assigns to each 
historical event its place in the entire story, making them all fit as 
nicely as the different scenes in a drama. The history of modern 
historians reads more like fiction than truth, not perhaps without 
reason. The plain recital of facts that once passed for history has 
fallen into desuetude, and we have now subtle analyses of times, 
characters, events, manners and customs, so ingeniously carried 
out that the most remote events are brought into direct connec- 
tion and the most different results traced to a common cause. It 
is not to be doubted that the study of history becomes largely 
more profitable when it involves the search for the causes of 
events as well as a knowledge of the events; but it is doubtful 
to my mind if it be of advantage to let others do our searching or 
thinking. The human intellect is ever restless and grasping. Man 
suffers from curiosity and ignorance; there is always in him a 
yearning not only to know that a thing is, but why and how it is. 
There is great pleasure in the satisfaction of this yearning. 
Whenever the mind finds a resting place; whenever in other 
words it satisfies itself as to the how and why of anything, a 
pleasurable feeling follows. Hence the popularity of modern his- 
tories. Historians who plausibly explain events and connect eras 
with one another meet with favor because they satisfy this yearn- 
ing. It is because of this tendency of our natures that we are 
prone to accept as true, such a law of history as that announced 
by Gibbon. Let us consider that tendency more fully in order 
that we may better understand whether our satisfaction with the 
annunciation of the law is a safe basis upon which to predicate 
its universal application. Every schoolboy knows and we all re- 
member the genuine pleasure derived from and in the study of 
mathematics. To reach the solution of a difficult problem is a 
great triumph. It elevates one's self in one's own estimation. It 
makes the heart glow with self-satisfaction. But let it be remem- 
bered right here that the pleasure is equal whether the solution be 
right or wrong so long as we deem it correct. 

The same rule applies to the study of great philosophical ques- 
tions. The pleasure of solution is great, and so long as the solu- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 203 

tion be deemed correct, the pleasure derived by the thinker is un- 
affected by the real truth or falsity of his doctrine. Unfortunate- 
ly, here the parallel ends. Mathematics is an exact science ; phi- 
losophy applied to political and social questions is not. In the 
first an error is quickly and inevitably discovered ; in the latter it 
may pass unchallenged forever. Therefore there is danger in the 
propensity we have for reaching solutions — the yearning we have 
for resting our minds on a conclusion ; for the solution or conclu- 
sion may be essentially wrong, although entirely satisfactory, and 
our proneness to reach solutions and conclusions is apt to precip- 
itate us into error. Our anxiety to rest our minds is the prolific 
mother of fallacies, and our errors of judgment are in the ratio 
of our anxiety to rest our minds. Thus it is a well-known fact 
that people who are slow to make up their minds are more gen- 
erally correct than those who jump at conclusions. The wish is 
father to the thought, and conclusions are arrived at frequently 
because they are plausible and afford a satisfactory rest for the 
mind. Observe how attractive yet how painful are mysteries; 
how irresistible is the impulse to account for them by an hypothe- 
sis. What youth has not pondered over the authorship of the let- 
ters of Junius or the identity of the Man with the Iron Mask? 
Who has ever been indifferent to the solution of a local mystery 
or could rest until his mind had adopted some theory in explana- 
tion? And let me ask in this connection how often have these 
theories been verified by the development of the true facts ? If the 
reflecting reader will recall a number of incidents that have come 
under his own observation, and will compare his theories with 
subsequently ascertained facts, he will appreciate the truth of this 
paradox : Nothing is so apt to delude as the plausible. It is told 
of a noted detective that he always doubted what seemed the 
most plausible solution of a mystery. If this be true he was an 
extremist, and probably more often deceived than not; but it is 
not to be gainsaid that there was method in his madness. Gibbon's 
brilliant sentence is a great relief to the mind in reading history. 
It offers a rule that is plausible, and which explains much that is 
otherwise perplexing. I am not prepared to denounce it as al- 
ways unsafe, but I cannot subscribe to it as being universal. Its 



204 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

champion will argue down every fact that limits scope in order 
to accommodate facts. This species of advocacy is as old as con- 
troversy itself. One historian will fritter away every fact that 
operates against the perfect virtue or peerless greatness of his 
hero ; another will smother every fact that would invest the same 
character with a single "virtue among a thousand crimes." Nor 
is this surprising. There is no doctrine so absurd but what it may 
find devoted and able champions with sword or pen, and we are 
so apt to cling to our own theories that our loyalty increases as 
they are attacked. Such championship, however, overleaps itself, 
and the champion himself, like Prince Rupert, after de- 
stroying and pursuing the enemy immediately in his front 
finds himself hemmed in by others on either side. The great 
soldier and the wise thinker are ever conservative. They 
are willing and ready to keep their minds always in 
unrest rather than adopt a false conclusion. The true philosopher 
cares nothing for plausibility ; truth is his desideratum, and with a 
judicial mind he is prepared to abandon a rule that will not ac- 
commodate itself to facts that he refuses to ignore or pervert. 

If the reader has a mind to pursue this line of thought fur- 
ther than it would be proper to consider it here, I commend to 
him the study of metaphysical writings. If you would seek an ex- 
planation of the manner in which the human intellect operates, 
seek it in Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. You will find a satisfac- 
tory answer to many queries. Pursue your investigations further 
and you will find that Kant, Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, 
Jouvins, Reid, Stuart, Hamilton, etc. are all equally plausible, 
and that all differ more or less. 

The rule which Gibbon announces for writing national his- 
tories has its exceptions, which may or may not be numerous 
enough to destroy the rule. I shall not venture an opinion as to 
that. It is only pertinent for me to inquire whether or not the 
rule, if it be one, applies to the history of the Jews. 

It is a commonly accepted doctrine that "revolutions never 
travel backward," which is but a more general statement of the 
rule which I have just criticised and, of course, is subject to the 
same criticism. It is easy to say that a revolution or a history 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 205 

pursues a course like an arrow shot into the air; but it were just 
as easy to compare them to a pendulum. Either comparison might 
be defended, and both shown to be plausible; they are probably 
neither correct. I do not wish to be misunderstood as decrying 
the effort to find general laws. That would be to decry science 
itself, for the highest office of science is to discover laws in ex- 
planation of phenomena, and it follows that the discovery of the 
most general law is the highest achievement of science. The high- 
est aim of science is the most general law, and the search should 
and in the nature of things must be never-ending ; for it is a striv- 
ing after the infinite. What I do wish to maintain is that the 
eagerness of the search is apt to make the seeker prematurely cry 
Eureka, and declare as the law what seems to be, or is desired 
to be, the law. That is to substitute the shadow for the substance, 
the desire for the thing desired. It is the same weakness or im- 
pulsiveness which makes the eager miner mistake pyrites of iron 
for free gold. The former looks like the precious metal, but when 
placed in the assayer's crucible the delusion is dissipated. The 
history of the Jews is not written in the five words of Gibbon ; it 
is not a revolution that has never reversed its course. It is rather 
like a mountain stream, whose source is on some inaccessible 
height, whose course varies to accommodate the surface it tra- 
verses ; now winding around a hill, now creeping through a val- 
ley ; now dashing over a cliff ; ever and anon losing itself in the 
bowels of the earth, to appear again with renewed vigor ; now ap- 
parently frittered away, only to gush from some distant rock on 
the opposite side of a hill ; now pushing sturdily toward the sea, 
and then winding its way around a hill toward the morning of its 
existence; and at last typifying the future of the Jews by being 
lost to human ken in some unexplored cave. 

Neither their existence nor greatness as a nation or a people 
had its genesis in their valor. Physical courage has always been 
an incident, not an element, of the Jewish character. It has no in- 
dependent existence in their make-up, and always depended upon 
something else. With some exceptions this may be said of all 
Oriental people. The sense and fear of danger is highly devel- 
oped in them, and there is no cultivation of that indifference to it. 



206 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

which has distinguished the great nations of Western Europe. On 
the other hand in assertion or defense of a principle no people 
have succeeded so well in overcoming physical fear in order to 
wrest the right from the very jaws of danger. To my mind this 
is the highest order of courage. He who marches with deter- 
mination to the cannon's mouth, with blanched cheek and flutter- 
ing heart, is a hero in that he overcomes himself; he who rushes 
forward with a laugh on his lip is but a little better than the 
brute that does not appreciate danger. I have read somewhere 
an anecdote of two soldiers riding into battle who represented the 
two species of courage that I have mentioned. One was pale and 
nervous, the other free-hearted and gay. The latter taunted the 
former with being afraid. The answer came quick and to the 
point. The pale soldier drove his spurs home, and as his horse 
sprang forward, cried : "So I am, and if you were half as fright- 
ened you would be riding in the opposite direction." Nations that 
are established in greatness may depend upon the courage born of 
principle for defense, but a nation that has to carve out its destiny 
must have courage independent of principle. Hengist and Horsa 
had no principles to govern them, yet they boldly sailed out into 
the tempestuous sea, through the stormy channel, and, landing 
upon a foreign hostile shore, acquired by the right of conquest the 
little island upon which has grown a nation upon whose domin- 
ions the sun never sets. 

Theirs was a courage of which conquerors are made. They 
knew but one law : 

"The good old plan 
That he should take who hath the power, 
And he should keep who can." 

This is the "valor" that Gibbon names as the groundwork of 
national greatness. It has never been the substratum of Jewish 
success. The Jews have fought often, bravely and well, but al- 
ways for principle. They have ever been patient and long suffer- 
ing, and needed leaders to urge them to battle, but once convinced 
that the right and God was with them they marched unto battle 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 20J 

inspired by a courage that is not daunted by wounds or repulses, 
and seldom indeed did they battle in vain. [See Joshua, chaps. 
6 and 7.] 

It would be impossible to name the basis of Jewish greatness 
without opening the great Book. Save in that chronicle their 
genesis is unwritten, and I am reluctant to quote that to many 
of my readers. There is faith and faith. I know many intelli- 
gent persons who will implicitly believe a history of the moon 
written by some imaginative astronomer from experiment with a 
spectroscope, but who reject the general outlines even of a his- 
tory that has run the gauntlet of criticism for thousands of years. 

The history of the Jews itself conclusively proves that Gib- 
bon's rule does not apply to the Jews. I have already shown that 
their greatness was not based upon that kind of valor to which 
the historian alludes. The most superficial student of Jewish his- 
tory is entirely familiar with the discord that .prevailed among the 
Jews at the time of their greatest apparent prosperity. The vic- 
tory of Titus in the siege of Jerusalem was due in a greater 
measure to the discord which prevailed behind the walls, than to 
the courage of the Roman legions that lay before them, and not 
only in temporal matters were they then and have they since 
been distracted by intestinal controversies. In religious matters 
they have time and again been convulsed by the bitterest conten- 
tions, and they have degenerated in consequence of such discords 
and other circumstances pressing upon them from without, but 
they have never passed into the stage of decay. The nineteenth 
century found them emerging from centuries of oppression, from 
the evil effects of dissipation throughout the different nations of 
the globe, from distractions arising from religious differences, 
but notwithstanding we are confronted with the irrefragible fact 
that the Jews are more numerous, more powerful, more culti- 
vated and more wealthy today than at any time in their history. 
The mission entrusted to them by their God has not yet ended: 
"And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and 
make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will 
bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and 
in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Genesis, chap. 



208 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

XII, 2, 3. The mission of Israel has not yet ended, nor will it 
cease as long as Polytheism and immorality exist. In a memora- 
ble lecture upon the growth of "Ethical Monotheism," by Rabbi 
Isaac S. Moses, of Milwaukee, delivered before the Unitarian 
Conference at Madison, Wis., the following language was em- 
ployed: "In order to bring to mankind the flaming law of the 
sanctity of life in order to teach the awful burden of man's moral 
responsibility, Israel had to pass through a school of probation, 
such as no other nation has ever passed. Every religion is judged 
by its code of morals, but the true test of that code must be found 
in the history of its development and in the character of its repre- 
sentatives. Intertwined with Israel's historical life is the progress 
of his moral ideas. The God of Israel becomes the true God, be- 
cause the morale of Israel proves to be the true morality. What 
explains the singular phenomenon, that of all the nations that 
once flourished and formed mighty empires, no trace nor vestige 
has remained except perhaps ruins and fragments ; but Israel still 
exists, not merely as a relic of the past, but as a living wonder 
of the indestructibility of the Jewish faith and race? What has 
kept Israel alive amidst the destructive floods of fanaticism and 
unending persecutions? Was it merely his grand peculiar belief 
in the One God, or was it not rather his code of morals, the sanc- 
tity of his domestic life, the virtue of the men and the purity of 
the women of Israel, that wrought this miracle of preservation 
and survival of the morally fittest ? The colossal empires of Asia 
crumbled into dust before the altar fires of Mylitta; the Greek 
States imbibed their death poison from the lips of Aphrodite ; the 
iron State of the Romans melted away before the glance of 
Venus. Israel still lives, because he has made the Holy One his 
God ; because he has heard the thunder word : "Ye shall be holy, 
because I, the Eternal, your God, am holy." 

But laying aside the consideration of Jewish greatness from 
the standpoint of the Bible, and as the result of providential 
guidance, let us consider it in the light of history. In my judg- 
ment the greatness of the Jews has been, and is not so much in 
achievement of a positive character, as in endurance. Their 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 20Q 

greatness consists more in what they have suffered, than in what 
they have done. 

Patience and faith have been their weapons, and with them 
they have withstood for five thousand years every attack that 
bigotry could organize, valor could undertake and cruelty con- 
summate. 

Other nations may boast conquests and triumphs born of ag- 
gression, but though the fruits of victory have been manifold, 
they have not been enduring; and it may be truly said that the 
nation whose greatness grows out of valor passes through the 
stages of discord and degeneracy to decay. Persia, Athens, 
Sparta, Macedonia, Egypt, Assyria, Rome and Carthage have all 
played the same drama with different scenes. The Jew alone is 
sui generis. 

But half the right is wrested, 

When victory yields her prize; 
And half the marrow tested, 
When old endurance dies. 

The greatest Jews suffered and endured to triumph. Jacob 
suffered and waited for fourteen years only to triumph in the 
possession of Rachel. Moses toiled in patience and meekly bowed 
to the fiat that forbade him the promised land. David suffered 
throughout youth from the persecutions of Saul, and in his age 
in the loss of his son; and Jesus, who is claimed to be a Prince 
of David's house, wrought more in a moment with the blood that 
trickled from his hands and feet than Pontius Pilate could achieve 
in centuries with all the legions of Rome at his back. Nor is it 
alone in the dim past that they have worked out a principle by 
the resistance of virtue and the influence of patient courage. The 
pages of profane history are as full of their triumphs as the 
Bible. Nero was not worse than Torquemado ; the arena no more 
terrible than the Ghetto — but the same power of resistance that 
triumphed in earlier times over the persecutions of the heathen 
and the Christian, overcame in succeeding years the onslaught of 
the Turk and the Moor, the Spaniard and the English Puritan, 
the German infidel and the Slavic bigot. Theirs has been a 



2IO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

hardy growth that flourished in storm with more vigor than in 

calm. 

"But from their nature will the tannen grow, 
Loftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks. 
Rooted in barrenness, where naught below 
Of soil supports them 'gainst the Alpine shocks 
Of eddying storms ; yet springs the trunk and mocks 
The howling tempest, till its height and frame 
Are worthy of the mountains from whose blocks 
Of bleak, gray granite into life it came, 
And grew a giant tree ; the mind may grow the same." 

The same poet, Byron, in "Childe Harold," who wrote the 
above, and who suffered so much himself, says: 

"All suffering doth destroy, or is destroyed, 
Even by the sufferer, and in each event ends." 

Invoke the past for nations that have escaped calamity and 
suffering only by ceasing to be, and a thousand will respond ; ask 
for those that have destroyed calamity and suffering by living 
them down with patient courage, and the answer will come but 
from one — an answer spoken in the calm, brave voice of the Jew : 
"Thou callest me, and I am here." In this virtue of endurance 
I believe the Jews have a safeguard against the decay that has 
marked the history of all other peoples. 

Nor has this spirit of endurance passed out from the Jewish 
character. They are as strong today in that respect as at any 
time in their history, and the chronicles of our own times point 
out as many Jewish martyrs as the history of Spain during the 
terrible dominion of Torquemado. The outrages that have been 
committed in the Balkan provinces and throughout all Russia, 
and even in civilized Germany, may well challenge ancient history 
for parallels, but throughout it all the inflexible spirit of the He- 
brew has withstood persecution, and the light which burns on the 
altar of the chosen people is yet undimmed. 

Jews become apostates at rare intervals from choice, but under 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 211 

compulsion, never. It is true, that at times under great stress Jews 
have feigned conversion. Thus Prescott in his History of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, in the chapter devoted to the inquisition, says, 
"In this crisis the only remedy left to the Jews was a real or 
feigned conversion to Christianity. St. Vincent Ferrier, a Domin- 
ican of Valencia, performed such a quantity of miracles in fur- 
therance of this purpose as might have caused the envy of any 
saint in the calendar, and these, aided by his eloquence, are said 
to have changed the hearts of no less than 35,000 of the race of 
Israel, which (significantly adds the historian) doubtless must 
be reckoned the greatest miracle of all." 

That this power of resistance still exists among the Jews of 
our own time is not only proven by the results of persecutions 
in the East but by the sorry returns of the various societies 
founded for the purpose of proselyting the Jews. Statistics show 
that after the expenditure of thousands of treasure, only at rare 
intervals have such societies secured an ostensible convert, and 
the majority of these soon proved to be hypocrites, who merely 
abjured their religion in order that they might possess themselves 
of the tempting bribes which such organizations offered to pre- 
sumed Jewish avarice. 

Their long history of suffering for principle's sake is the 
legacy of the modern Jew, and it were the most barbarous disre- 
gard of the holy sentiment of national and family pride to cast 
it aside. Reverence for ancient institutions and loyalty to the 
principles out of which they grew are not the proper subject of 
commendation by argument. They are sentiments that grow and 
exist in noble natures, like the wild violet in the forest. The 
subtlest chemistry can not discover the particular law under 
whose operations the wild flower grows, nor substitute its growth ; 
neither can logic discover the fount in the human organization 
whence flow our noblest sentiments. But we have an instinct 
common to us all which commends or condemns any development 
of the human mind and heart, and by this standard I feel safe 
in declaring that the strongest evidence of moral decay in any 
people is indifference to the traditions and principles of its fore- 
fathers. 



212 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

The Jews in America have been relieved in a great measure 
of the pressure under which they have existed for years, and pros- 
perity, coupled with liberty, has filled many of them with that 
pride of self which condemns all humility as degrading and all 
reverence as maudlin. Like the stream to which I have compared 
them they have been a great force as long as they have been con- 
fined to high and narrow limits, but now that they are freed 
from restrictions they are in danger of spreading in a thin, ex- 
posed sheet over the surface of the earth, and thus being ulti- 
mately lost. Shall we not rather channel for ourselves new and 
greater courses, in whose confines we shall continue to be a noble 
stream? Shall we not confine ourselves in the banks of Prin- 
ciples and Loyalty to the ancient traditions of our fathers, and 
thus preserve our integrity? We can if we will; and shall we 
not ? What answer can the mind make to this plea of the heart ? 
What reply can Utility make to this demand of Right? For 
myself, I should not care to inquire the consequence of keeping 
faith with my ancestors. To me it is sufficient that I am one 
of that people who have ever been a part of the world, yet dis- 
tinct from it, and who, through storm and calm, have existed 
in their distinctive integrity, just as the gulf stream has flowed 
on forever as part of the sea, yet as a river running its endless 
course with the ocean for its banks. It were faithless, cowardly 
and inhuman to forget or disregard our past ; and to cease to be 
in principle what our fathers were, is to forget or disregard. 
I do not contend that manners and customs should not change, 
but I maintain that the integrity of our people, the sacredness 
of the tie that unites us, the almost family relation among all 
Jews, which has been our safeguard in all ages, should be pre- 
served in the exercise of that holy duty which was enjoined by 
the great Law-giver: "Honor thy father and thy mother that 
thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God has 
given thee." 

When Regulus was called upon to break faith with the Cartha- 
ginians, whose treachery has become proverbial, or advise his 
people to a disadvantageous treaty, he turned his back upon his 
country and his people, his wife and his children, his honors and 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 213 

his life, because it did not become him, as a Roman, to betray his 
country nor, as a man, to violate his pledge. His life is the bright- 
est page in Roman history, because it exemplifies the principle 
highest above all others, that the noblest virtue is to do right with- 
out regard to consequences. 

"Not bestowed 
In vain should such examples be." 

We who are the "heirs of all the ages ;" we whose veins con- 
tain the oldest and the purest blood ; we who have survived 
Nebuchadnezzar and Semiramis, Alexander and Caesar; we who 
can point to the ever-fresh monuments of our greatness, monu- 
ments whose age make modern the crumbling walls of the Coli- 
seum; we the people who antedate all others and have outlived 
them all — we should remain firm in our devotion to all that has 
given substance to these boasts, with the same faith in results 
that made Daniel calm and brave when he was cast among the 
lions. It is a solemn duty, and there the inquiry should end, but 
just as it is necessary to teach honesty by showing that it is the 
best policy, it may be proper to go further and show that as a 
matter of expediency it is best that we remain Jews, and to that 
consideration I shall address myself in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 

Wherein is Considered the Expediency of Preserving the Exist- 
ence of the Jews as Such. 

In the consideration of any question of duty the welfare of 
others is of as much consequence as our own; in the considera- 
tion of a question of policy, our own advancement is the only 
end in view. Unhappy the man who regulates the progress of 
his life only by the law of sordid self-interest. Such a creature 
carries a natural impulse to an extreme that makes it unnatural. 
He distorts the law of self-defense into a pretended right of uni- 
versal and indiscriminate war upon the world. He becomes the 
hated of man, the victim of God ; for no love can extend to one 
devoid of love; no mercy be vouchsafed to him who displays 
none. Though it be not in the Decalogue, not less divine is the 
injunction: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." 

I am not blind to the fact that the vast majority of men are 
swayed by influences of both good and evil, and that while no 
man is perfect in virtue, no one is wholly steeped in evil. It 
would avail nothing to preach to men if they were either wholly 
good or wholly bad. In the one case it would be, 

"To paint the lily 
Or gild refined gold." 

In the other it were "To cool the sun by fanning it with a 
feather." 

But when men desire to do right and only go astray when they 
persuade themselves that what is politic is right, it is important 
either to show that what is politic is not right — or that what is 
wrong is not politic. Either effort if successful should change 
their course, for no good man would forsake the right from mo- 

214 



*, 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 215 

tives of policy; no intelligent man would knowingly go counter 
to his own interest in the exercise of a wrong. 

As I have stated, to my mind it is sufficient to know that it is 
a solemn duty to be faithful to our traditions. But I have friends, 
honest and true in desire, who differ with me and who defend 
their position with no little power. It is contended that no par- 
ticular form of religion, no adherence to particular customs is 
necessary to gain the favor of Heaven ; that therefore it becomes 
simply a question for consideration, whether, 

"Here upon this bank and shoal of Time," 

virtues may be practiced without regard to creeds, rites, cer- 
emonies or customs, and that neither our religion nor our customs 
should be preserved unless they be shown to further our temporal 
welfare. In respect of that, it is urged that so far from being a 
benefit they are the reverse. That bigotry and oppression, perse- 
cution and outrage are stimulated against us by our exclusive- 
ness and unity ; that if we disintegrate and sacrifice our integrity 
as a people, intermarry with Christians, forego our little cliques, 
abjure the Synagogue and the rite of circumcision, oppression 
and bigotry, persecution and outrage will die out for want of 
fuel, and we will ride untrammeled on the highest wave of our 
modern civilization. 

I have stated the position fairly and shall treat it with respect- 
ful consideration. I shall not enter into any theological discus- 
sion as to the necessity of religion in general or particular for 
the salvation of the soul. That is a field too full of stones and 
stumps for my reaper. I take direct issue with the proposition 
that we will be advanced morally, physically, mentally or socially 
by merging our existence in the common mass of mankind. For 
the sake of discussion I will concede, what I do not otherwise 
grant, that religion is of no consequence in the determination 
of our life beyond the grave. 

I have already treated briefly of the general proposition, that 
in order for man to attain anything approximating universal 
brotherhood, he must limit his sphere to confines vastly more con- 



2l6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

tracted than those aimed at. It is equally true that he must, as 
that he should. History incontrovertibly proves that, howsoever 
alike different species of men be, there always must be different 
species, which are genera to other species. To illustrate let us 
suppose that by selection members of every species of man or 
any other animal were associated together in community, with 
equal rights, privileges and duties. Is it not evident that in a 
short time there would grow out of this chaos a distinct species 
or breed ? The maturity of man is so far removed from his birth 
than we can only study this problem with reference to him in the 
pages of history; among the lower animals we can make actual 
observations. It requires but little experiment to show, and wider 
experience demonstrates that no matter how haphazard any sys- 
tem or want of system in breeding is conducted, out of it will 
grow a distinct breed. In the make-up of any old woman's poul- 
try there may be blood of every known variety infused into the 
stock without selection or skill, but nevertheless in a short time 
her chicks can be distinguished from those of her neighbor on 
the adjoining farm. In the English, French, German and Span- 
ish peoples we find a great variety of blood indiscriminately mixed 
without regard to results, and yet while possessing many qualities 
in common they are distinct in thought and feeling, physical, 
moral and intellectual organization, speaking different languages, 
governed by different laws and practicing different customs. 

From these experiences we may learn this lesson, that in 
crossing breeds a new breed is made — that when one is extin- 
guished by a failure to keep it pure a new strain is either formed 
or largely modified. Therefore if classes are undesirable nothing 
is gained by surrendering our particular classification. We 
merely make room for another, the quality of which we can not 
foretell. When I say another, I refer not only to those that may 
take an independent existence, but also those whose previous 
characters are modified by new infusions. Now if we are to 
selfishly consider the benefits we are to derive from ceasing to 
be Jews, it behooves us to inquire wherein we may be advantaged 
by crossing our breed, and by continual crossing extinguish its 
independent existence. I devote myself especially to the ques- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 217 

tion of blood for this reason. If we remain exclusive in our mar- 
riages we perforce must remain so to some extent in our social 
life; and e converso if we surrender our social exclusiveness we 
necessarily forfeit the purity of our strain by permitting mixed 
marriages. 

"Man is fire and woman is tow, 

Bring them together and away they go," 

and that, too, without regard to questions of religion, philosophy 
or social science. The Jews are famous for their intellectual 
power, their moral habits, their physical development and health, 
and their pure social intercourse with one another. It is not nec- 
essary to parade with sophomoric eloquence the exemplars of our 
intellectual power. The world concedes that, for their number, 
the Jews produce more great men than any other people on the 
globe. It is as readily conceded that their moral, physical and 
social habits and development are of the highest order — so high 
indeed that they have never been surpassed, and perhaps never 
equaled. Such a coincidence of high and noble qualities must be 
due to a law which if ascertainable may throw light on the ques- 
tion under discussion. It is a well recognized doctrine that na- 
tional characters arise from a community of blood, climate, laws 
and customs. The same may be said of the Jews who, in some 
respects, constitute a nation, though they claim the globe for 
their country and the "Powers that be" for their rulers. If this 
be true, that the community of blood, customs, religion, etc., has 
created the Jewish character, why change the law that is fruitful 
of such glorious results ? We are the result of a natural selection 
that has been going on for thousands of years. We have pre- 
served pure a strain of blood that in the beginning was better than 
all others and that shows no sign of impairment. Why should we 
abandon methods that have placed us in the front ranks of men ? 
The stock-raiser carefully guards the purity of his best strains, 
fearing that the infusion of other blood may impair the quality of 
his stock. Why should not we be equally jealous of ourselves? 
This may be claimed a harsh and unfeeling view of the matter. 



2l8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

It may be urged that other and higher than mere blood consid- 
erations claim attention, but may I ask whence characters grow, 
if not from blood and associations ? Besides, in what else will we 
be benefited ? Shall we in America have higher privileges under 
a Government that declares all men free and equal before the 
law? Shall we make more money, we who now enjoy the un- 
enviable distinction of being a nation of money-getters ? Shall we 
be more cultivated, educated or refined because we forfeit our 
birth right? Shall we be more beloved by our fellow-creatures 
when our consciences shall upbraid us for being openly at war 
with our religion and our traditions, while our Christian broth- 
ers sneer at us for being secretly faithful thereto ? Shall we have 
to struggle less for a livelihood when we become "men of the 
world?" Shall we, whether we abjure religion or not, be hap- 
pier because the door of a mixed society is smilingly opened in 
our faces and more smilingly dosed on our backs ? 

Ah ! but it is said that the name of Jew is a millstone around 
the neck of ambition; that it mars a career. So thought Samuel 
Rogers when he had Benjamin Disraeli baptized in the Church 
of England. Did that ceremony aid the great Jew ? Was he not 
always in the public eye and his own esteem of the same people 
as his great friends, the Rothschilds ? Did the people of England, 
the haughtiest and most addicted to caste of all the great West- 
ern powers, love Disraeli less because he championed the cause 
of the Jews in Servia, Bosnia, Herzogovinia, and paraded with 
pride through his works that he was a Jew? Turn to his con- 
temporary, Edward Lasker, who was not reared out of his faith. 
Did he not rise despite his birth, and hold his hands upon the 
heart-strings of Germany? Contrast him with Disraeli. The 
latter not a Jew, except by blood, espousing the cause of the 
Jews amid the plaudits of the world ; Lasker, a Jew in every- 
thing save heart, turning his back upon the Jews when bigotry 
assailed them, only to merit and receive the first condemnation 
expressed for him by the civilized world. 

The world is cold to unwarranted claims in whatever guise 
they come ; it is liberal to merit in any garb. The laurel grows 
for the Jew as for the Christian. It is true that, everything else 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 2IQ 

being equal, the Jew is at a disadvantage, because of the pre- 
judice against the Jews as a class, but it is equally true that he 
who is inherently great will rise in spite of the prejudice. Cer- 
tainly no one unworthy the laurel may wear it, because as to him 
there is no prejudice. The prejudice which prevails against a 
class is only an incubus in the beginning. As soon as any indi- 
vidual proves himself superior to the faults of his class that pro- 
voke prejudice, he is made an exception, and in being made an 
exception is treated with more consideration than if he did not 
belong to the execrated class. Unquestionably the evil reputa- 
tion of the Jews injures every Jew among the Gentiles until he 
makes a reputation for himself, but when that reputation is made 
the name of Jew is honored in the man and the man honored in 
the name. But, I am asked, why suffer the disadvantage con- 
ceded in the outset of the race ? Why not start on equal terms by 
giving up the name and qualities of the Jew? To this I answer 
that the favorite does not always win the race. He may start 
under more auspicious circumstances, but speed and endurance 
must win. Besides, the seeming disadvantage may be a blessing 
in disguise in that it stimulates energies that would otherwise 
lie dormant. It is certain that the persecutions of the Jews have 
developed their greatness. May it not be that the necessity for 
greater exertion to attain their ends was the secret of the success 
of the great among our people? Moreover, if we free ourselves 
from this disadvantage we assume others. Nature distributes 
her compensations as the clouds do their raindrops. A man must 
have some religion or none, and whichever he chooses he will 
find himself more or less handicapped thereby. In particular 
localities one religion may offer greater inducements than others, 
but, as a rule, it matters not what faith is professed. The race 
will be to the swift and enduring. A striking proof of this is 
found in the proverbial failure in life of the sons of great men. 
They start in their careers with the prestige of a great name, they 
enjoy the patronage of a wide circle of family friends, but when 
the ancestral fire is wanting the family light grows dim. If this 
be true of those who have a positive advantage, how true must it 
be of those who only enjoy the negative advantage of a free 



220 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

field and a fair fight ! I am convinced that every legitimate assist- 
ance in the beginning will aid in securing success at the end 
but an advantage or seeming advantage secured at the cost of a 
principle will prove a detriment before the end is reached. "The 
mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine." 

Success is the reward of merit alone, and merit needs no 
aids that are purchased at the price of the noblest sentiments. 
In every department of life there is a republic of excellence, and 
he who possesses the highest excellence may become a president. 
Is the music of Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn less admired because 
they were Jews or the sons of Jews ? Do students ignore Spinoza 
because he was a Jew? Does the interest flag in reading Auer- 
bach and Heine because they were Jews? Who is it that would 
pluck a flower from the immortelles that grace the venerable fore- 
head of Sir Moses Montefiore? 

It is the sheerest nonsense to think that, individually, we suf- 
fer in this country because there is a prejudice against Jews. 
There is no prejudice against a Jew who is worthy of the name; 
it only extends to those who disgrace the name. A gentleman 
who does honor to the name derives honor from it, for 

"He gives but to receive again, 

As the seas return the rivers in rain." 

The unsuccessful man is always casting about for the excuse 
for his failure, and the last explanation to strike him is his own 
deficiencies. It is a safe rule that he who lays his failure at the 
door of his creed or race, seeks an illegitimate parent for his 
own abortion. 

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves that we are underlings." 

I do not dispute that in barbarous countries or among bigoted 
peoples, where the Jews are persecuted as such, there may be a 
positive advantage in not being a Jew. But there is no need for 
a utilitarian argument to such Jews. Faithful to the traditions 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 221 

of the Jews, they are more adherent to their religion and their 
customs in adversity than in prosperity. With them it suffices 
to know and feel that it is right to be Jews. The suffering that 
grows out of the exercise of that right they leave to the God of 
Israel, in whose inscrutable wisdom and justice they place a 
sublime faith. I should not omit to mention one other disadvan- 
tage arising from the desertion of Judaism and Jewish modes of 
life. The renegade from any class is a marked man. He be- 
comes a 

"Fixed figure for the time of scorn 
To point his slow, unmoving finger at." 

The Jewish renegade is execrated by the Jews as a traitor 
and a coward ; by the Christians as a hypocrite and a time-server. 
Consistency and sincerity are qualities that always excite admira- 
tion and respect. The most prominent among the respected and 
esteemed Jews are those who are Jews at heart and avowed Jews 
before the world. It may apparently avail a man to abjure his 
religion and his people, but it is equally true that at times there 
is an advantage to be derived from absolute falsehood and de- 
ception. 

I trust I shall not be misunderstood as arguing that in remain- 
ing Jews it is essential that we abstain from association with non- 
Israelites. I hold no such views. I am in favor of intercourse, 
but the intercourse that I favor is as far from an indiscriminate 
intermixture as it is from absolute exclusion. I favor intercourse, 
conducted upon a sound philosophy, applied to social life. I 
shall have occasion to treat of that subject further on, and I only 
mention it now to guard against misapprehension. Thus far I 
have confined myself to the consideration of the single question : 
Shall we as Jews perpetuate our solidarity as a people preserving 
our faith and traditions, and our social characteristics? I have 
sought to show that our perpetuity depends upon ourselves ; that 
we as a people are superior to that law of decay which affects 
all others. I have sought to answer the question by showing 
that it was a duty to do so, which if it properly might be, in fact 



222 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

is not affected by any considerations of true policy. Let it be 
remembered that I have discussed the question thus f?r solely 
from the standpoint of the Jew — I shall later on com der it in 
another view. 

Assuming that the question I have propounded should be an- 
swered affirmatively, I next proceed to inquire into the proper 
course to pursue in order to insure the integrity of the Jews. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Wherein is Considered the Loyalty Due to the Traditions and 
Customs of the Jewish Ancestors. 

No problems are so difficult of solution as the problems of 
casuistry. When the reasoning - powers are applied to the solution 
of delicate questions of right or wrong they utterly fail, except 
they derive conclusions from premises that do not properly ema- 
nate from the reasoning powers. Indeed, it may be safely an- 
nounced as a sound proposition that all rules of conduct that the 
reason approves are deducible from the moral sense. It does not 
follow that the rules will or must be correct because of this 
fact. It is not certain that the moral sense itself has not been 
perverted if originally pure, and, moreover, in the process of 
deduction elements may creep in to defile the purity of the law. 
A stream may gush in crystal clearness at its head, and be a filthy 
volume at its mouth. The truth of the general proposition thus 
briefly mentioned is illustrated by the power of what we call con- 
science. Under some name, that element of our spiritual nature 
which turns to the right and from the wrong, without effort or 
delay, has been recognized all over the world, and at all times. 
Its voice is often drowned by false logic, but it is never silent. 
It seldom, if ever, errs ; the reasoning faculties are as often wrong 
as right. Almost any act can be plausibly defended by the under- 
standing, but when the Reason has whitewashed an escutcheon 
the Conscience irrepressibly points to the fact that beneath the 
coat of white is a dark and repelling substratum. I remember 
once as a student of ethics I asked our learned instructor this 
question: "If I saw an East Indian woman, in the exercise of 
her religious belief, about to cast her infant into the Ganges, 
should I prevent what I conceive to be a murder and deny her 
the exercise of her religious belief, or should I be tolerant and 
suffer a murder ?" I should have no difficulty now in answering 
223 



224 L£ N - LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

the question; but then it presented difficulties to one who be- 
lieved in what is popularly and erroneously called the exercise 
of the freedom of conscience. The professor's answer was char- 
acteristic: "I might fail to satisfactorily explain my course, but 
I know that my moral instincts would impel me to prevent the 
sacrifice, and I would do it." There are some things about which 
we can not reason, they are so deep ; there are others about which 
we need not, they are so clear. Twestern said much the same 
thing about the existence of God. 

I need not say that I believe in this moral sense. I believe 
that every well balanced mind acknowledges its existence. 

Utilitarians may and do argue that patriotism is a virtue be- 
cause it is politic, but the martyrdom that has been suffered by 
millions of patriots is an answer to the argument which no logic 
can meet. The love of country has a higher origin and a broader 
base than mere policy. It is true that nations are created or 
rather grow out of that selfishness which I have discussed al- 
ready, but that selfishness is merely a longing to satisfy a want 
common to all mankind, implanted in us by a higher power to 
work out an end that we know not of. Mere logic and utilitarian- 
ism breed such apothegms as ubi bene, ibi patria; the moral sense 
breeds such heroes as Regulus and Leonidas and Arnold Winkel- 
ried. Patriotism is a virtue positive and per se, and hence a duty 
universally recognized and universally practiced. It is but a 
specific form of that loyalty which we owe to a higher power, 
upon which we depend, whence we sprung and to which we are 
indebted for existence, improvement and protection. Loyalty to 
different powers and different institutions may co-exist without 
conflict, for the fealty due to the one may be of a different nature 
to that which is due to another. The population of the United 
States is heterogeneous in its elements, but homogeneous in its 
compound. The common bond of American citizenship closes the 
political gap between people that by education and from nativity 
are widely apart ; but notwithstanding this community of loyalty, 
the Frenchman continues to love France and hate Germany, and 
the German still loves Germany and hates France. It is not 
objected to in our country that American citizens of German birth 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 22$ 

or extraction should celebrate great German triumphs with en- 
thusiasm; nor that Frenchman should glow over the victories of 
the Little Corporal. Die Wacht Am Rhein and La Marseillaise 
float undisturbed on our breezes, for we know that when the 
national harpstrings are sounded, the Germans and the French 
will attune their voices to a common key and sing in harmony the 
"Star Spangled Banner." 

There is nothing inconsistent in the Jewish reverence and 
love for the traditions and customs of the Jewish fathers. 
It is the same order of loyalty that makes the natural- 
ized emigrant weep or rejoice in the sorrows or joys of the nation 
whence he sprung. It is true we have no land that we may call 
our own. There is not a foot of ground upon the face of the 
globe under absolute Jewish dominion, for even the Jewish cem- 
eteries are parts of nations in which the Jews are citizens or 
subjects, independent of their being Jews. But while we have 
no nation in that sense we are a people distinct in ourselves, 
though scattered broadcast among the haunts of men. Quam 
Huctus diversi, quam mare conjuncti. Their derivation from a 
common source, the unparalleled purity of their blood, the same- 
ness of their creed and traditions, the melancholy uniformity 
of their sufferings, the same fears and hopes, the same customs 
and idiosyncrasies, make the Jew of Asia Minor a compatriot 
of the Jew of the United States. The bond exists and it is rec- 
ognized. The great centenarian, Sir Moses Montefiore, is its 
living exemplar.* From our shores of freedom the ships of 
aid and encouragement have been launched for tyrant ports, laden 
with good cheer and substantial offerings to our persecuted 
brethren abroad. 

Was it wrong for us to aid the persecuted Jews in Roumania 
and neighboring provinces, while others busied themselves with 
missionary work in Central Africa ? Was our loyalty misplaced * 
Certainly our government thought not so when at our instance 
it remonstrated against the outrages, and recognized our sym- 
pathetic sufferings by sending a Jewish Consul to Bucarest.* 

♦Written before his death in 1885. 

*Benj. F. Peixotto during Grant's administration. 



226 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Our moral sense tells us that this loyalty is right, and we may rea- 
son as we please we can not uproot it. We have no Jewish nation 
whose laws we are called on to obey ; we have no common home 
to improve, to love or defend; we have no temporal gvernment 
to support, but we have in common a past of our fathers full of 
suffering and triumph, patience and courage, heroism and wis- 
dom, piety and truth ; we have in common a present for ourselves, 
great in the growth from the seeds sown in that past ; we have in 
common a future for our children that shall give fruition where 
there is but foliage now. To that past, this present and the future 
we owe fealty. It is a duty to the exercise of which we are 
admonished by the still small voice of conscience, the neglect of 
which will engender the bitterest remorse. 

Let not this loyalty be confounded with the loyalty that the 
Roman Catholic pays to Rome. The Pontiff still claims a tem- 
poral power for the See and as the head of the Catholic hierarchy 
he rules the Catholics of the world. To the Catholics he is the 
Vicar of God, whose bulls are revelations from on High — and 
if it chances that governmental laws come in conflict with the 
decree of Rome the Catholic is called on as part of his religion 
to cling to Mother Church. Ouf loyalty is subject to no such 
objection. To compare the two is to compare opposites; the 
distinction between them is their entire difference from each 
other. 

I shall not argue that it is proper to nourish this sentiment of 
loyalty. I have discussed it sufficiently if it be in need or will 
admit of argument. I assume that it should be nourished and 
cultivated as a virtue of the highest order. I urge this nourish- 
ment and culture as one of the means by which the Jews can 
be perpetuated. If we be true to the traditions of our fathers 
we shall live as long as filial devotion engenders self-esteem and 
the admiration of the world. Without our history and our line- 
age we are nothing, and it behooves us to cherish them more 
fondly than the aristocrat does his genealogy. Our family tree 
was rooted on creation's dawn, and destined, I trust, to flourish 
until the latest day. 



CHAPTER V. 

Wherein is Considered the State of Judaism in the United States. 

I have already stated my reluctance to touch upon the subject 
of religion, and if I feel called on to give it some consideration, 
it shall be but a brief and passing notice. The discussion of our 
social duties would be incomplete without some mention of our 
religion. 

It has become fashionable in America to reform "Judaism." 
The phrase is either absurd or inaptly chosen. The religion of 
the Jews can not be reformed or altered by the hand or mind of 
man. That would be to tinker with the handiwork of divinity. 
We might as well seek to alter the operations of the solar system. 
The practice of our religion is, however, the proper subject of 
change. Independent of any form of religion known to us, 
there are certain natural rights which occasion reciprocal duties. 
The observance of the duties which grow out of the rights of 
others is the religion common to all. Differences have arisen as 
to the best mode of practicing the duties we owe to one another, 
and as each mode materializes and gains supporters it takes upon 
itself the name of a distinct religion. In so far as each teaches 
the exercise of correct principles each is divine and may not be 
altered ; in so far as they adopt or practice methods of instruction 
they are perhaps all human. Judaism has no broader limits than 
the tablets on which were inscribed the Decalogue. Who obeys 
the Commandments is a Jew so far as religion is concerned. It 
has been found, however, that just as it requires a criminal code 
to prevent crimes against governments, so it requires religions to 
prevent violations of the Ten Commandments, and to encourage 
the practice of the positive virtues, which are expressed in or 
implied from them. 

It has been shown that man is actually selfish. This quality 
in its normal condition is a virtue, but under the corrupting 
influence of our animal appetites it is in constant danger of be- 
227 



228 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

coming a grave fault. Once developed in its unnatural vigor by 
animal wants or desires, it clouds the reason and deadens the 
conscience, until our natural duties are forgotten or wilfully dis- 
regarded. To counteract this tendency, churches have been built, 
so that under the melting influence of "fretted arch and long 
drawn aisle," selfish ends may be forgotten and natural duties 
become prominent. We are all subject to the effect called enthu- 
siasm — that frenzy of the mind to which we are indebted for the 
greatest triumphs of mankind. The bravest soldiers will lose 
courage if they are denied the inspiration of music and the na- 
tional flag; the veriest coward glows with courage when 
he hears his comrades cheer a response to the martial music 
of the drum and fife. Orators infuse into the most apa- 
thetic an interest in public affairs by arousing their enthusi- 
asm. Religious fervor is a powerful agent in bringing about the 
practice of virtue and the avoidance of sin. The ceremonies and 
forms most calculated to produce the desired end have every- 
where been adopted, and as different people require different rites, 
ceremonies and forms to make them fervid with virtuous desire, 
different forms of religion have arisen in different portions of 
the globe. The Oriental people require peculiar forms, etc., which 
are supplied by Buddhism and Mohammedanism. Europe is sup- 
plied by the various forms of Christianity. As times change and 
the world advances or retrogrades, changes are necessary in cere- 
monies, rites, etc., hence the importance in every church of an 
hierarchy, whence may be derived authority for such modifica- 
tions as are required. In the absence of such government con- 
fusion must predominate, and chaos will supervene. Instance the 
Christian churches. Under Rome and the Czar there is uniform- 
ity in two of the branches, but the departure inaugurated by 
Luther and Calvin has bred a multitude of churches having little 
in common but their origin and the essentials of their creeds. It 
is said that churches breed half the world's troubles. This is a 
mistake. It is the difference among churches that gives rise to 
contention — not their existence. Were there but one church it 
would doubtless be corrupt in its ministers, but it could not be 
bellicose. A multitude of churches insures a clean ministry and 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 229 

a belligerent spirit. What is the proper mean between these 
extremes, is not my province to discuss. What I am leading to is 
the proposition that a multitude of churches to practice the same 
creed under different forms, engender such confusion, contention 
and strife that the creed itself is in danger. Thus children in 
contending for a toy nearly always destroy the subject matter of 
controversy before the title is established. 

Forms of religion must change with men and conditions. The 
forms of Judaism are no exception. I am not opposed to the con- 
servative and gradual alteration of ceremonies that should fall, 
as many have fallen, into desuetude ; but reform does not mean 
revolution. In trimming off unnecessary foliage from our church 
tree, let us guard against hacking down the tree itself. We have 
no real hierarchy, and may be said to have had none since the 
Sanhedrin — consequently the "reforms" are not uniform. The 
result could be easily forecast were it not already foregone. 
Each Jewish minister is a free-lance, and each is ambitious to 
originate something new, an achievement that he thinks is accom- 
plished by destroying something old. They are fettered by noth- 
ing but traditions and each has his pruning-knife whetted anx- 
ious to cut off a more substantial limb than his neighbor. The 
fashion is little over a quarter century old in America and the 
poor old tree is so bare of limbs and foliage already that it is 
scarcely recognizable. When I see the work of such men as 
Felix Adler I am reminded of the similarity between them and 
Gloster, who thought that: 

"The aspiring youth who fired the Ephesian dome 
Outlives the pious fool who reared it." 

Can we do nothing to stop this desecration ? Can we not fetter 
the inconoclasm of these ruthless- destroyers ? 

Lord Bacon, in his essay on Innovation says, "It is good also 
not to try experiments except the necessity be urgent or the util- 
ity evident; and well to. beware that it be the reformation that 
draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pre- 
tendeth the reformation, and lastly, that the novelty, though it be 



23O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

not rejected, yet be held for a suspect, and as the Scripture 
sayeth, 'That we make a stand upon the ancient way and then 
look about us and discover what is the straight and right way 
and so to walk in it.' " 

Let us pause for a while and consider the present indifference 
to the forms and ceremonies of our religion in its relations to 
the righteous conduct of the people. The present reform move- 
ment as expounded by its leaders, is an effort to reduce religion 
to a rational basis, and to reject everything that cannot be recon- 
ciled with the understanding of its adherents. In the nature of 
things a platform so narrow affords no room for traditional cus- 
toms, forms and ceremonies, nor does it extend a habitat for the 
miracles narrated in the Scriptures. That this reform move- 
ment must eventuate in a failue, seems to my mind so clear that it 
requires but little argument to show it. Were the movement of 
an intelligent and conservative character, directed to eliminating 
and altering some of the obsolete and ineffective forms of our 
worship, and were it the result of a desire common to the mass 
of the people, the success of it would be immediate and its course 
unaffected by anything in the nature of revolution. But an effort 
to rationalize religion is an absurdity upon its face. The very 
phrase, "A rational religion," as interpreted by those who coined 
it, involves a contradiction of terms. A creed formulated for the 
government of the world in its moral aspect, which is not based 
either in revelation or tradition, can have no firm foundation. 
Reason is neither deep enough nor broad enough to support a 
structure of such towering height and such ponderous weight. 
The decalogue is conceded to be the best moral code ever yet 
promulgated for the government of the world, and so-called ra- 
tionalists uphold and maintain every syllable contained in that 
wonderful revelation. If the divine character of the commands 
be disputed, but the truth and worth of them maintained, it be- 
hooves the rationalists to furnish an affirmative argument in 
favor of each of said commands. Can this be done? Is it pos- 
sible to establish by pure logic, and from premises which re- 
quire no resort to tradition or revelation, the truth of any sen- 
tence in the decalogue? It is a startling challenge, and yet I 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 23I 

make it without fear of a satisfactory reply, that it is impossible 
by mere argument, independent of the Scriptures or tradition, 
to establish the correctness of any law laid down in the com- 
mandments. 

For example, what will the rationalist say in support of the 
command "Thou shalt not kill ?" Where will he find the premise 
upon which to base a train of reasoning leading to such a con- 
clusion? Will he find it in the nature of man? Will he find it 
in the course of nature that surrounds and environs mankind? 
Will he find it in the animal instincts which observation teaches 
him exist in the human organism? Will he find it by analogy 
from the brute creation? Most assuredly not. 

If he lowers his gaze from the skies and looks about him and 
at his feet, he will find nothing to warrant the interdict against 
homicide. He will find that the animals prey upon one another, 
that the birds of the air and the fish of the sea prey upon one 
another; he will find that man in his primitive natural state 
engages in almost ceaseless warfare against his kind ; that might 
is recognized as the only standard of right; that there exists no 
conscience in the savage which gives rise to remorse because of 
the slaughter of a fellow being. Nay, more, he finds that the 
savage satisfies his hunger by using the corpse of his human vic- 
tim as his daily food. If he argues that the institution of society 
cannot exist if homicide be permissible, the reply comes swift 
to the surface, that society supervenes the nature of man and is 
the creature of mankind, not man the creature of society, and if 
society requires an absolute change in the nature of man in order 
to render its existence possible, then is society falsely based. 
Again, what argument is offered by anything in nature in favor 
of the right of property and in support of the interdict against 
theft? Do we not find that the animals seize what they have 
the power to take, and retain what they have the power to hold ? 
Is not this true of the birds and of the fishes ? Is it not true of 
man in his primitive and natural state? Is it not true, even 
according to the theory of the evolutionist, that the fittest sur- 
vive because of their fitness, and because by reason of their fit- 
ness they are able to enjoy those things which are necessary to 



232 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

sustenance, and thus are the unfit deprived of them. Nature pre- 
sents a continual round of thefts justified apparently by the di- 
vine economy. It is only man who is forbidden to steal, and why 
this distinction if it be not founded upon some broader and 
deeper basis than mere reason. I might go through with all of 
the commandments and show that none of them can be sustained 
upon mere and purely logical grounds. 

Surely a religion can have but little claim for respect if it 
denies the divine character of the decalogue and yet fails to es- 
tablish the commandments upon some other basis than that fur- 
nished by the Scriptures. 

The new school further maintains that the practice of mere 
forms and ceremonies is neither essential to salvation, nor to the 
practice of morality and hence it is permissible to abrogate all 
forms and ceremonies that do not consist with contemporary 
ideas. I propose to consider this proposition, for it involves an 
error that has become exceedingly popular. I copy here some 
reflections upon this matter prepared at another time and which 
were delivered in a public lecture. 

"Religion, in its generic sense, has been defined as the recog- 
nition of God, as an object of worship, love and obedience. With- 
out regard to differences in creeds, a system of devotion which 
fulfils the conditons of the definiton may be termed a religion — 
and without regard to incidental errors in the system, if it be 
based upon a recognition of one God, as the fountain of exist- 
ence and authority and the object of adoration, love and obe- 
dience, to that extent the particular religion is true. The object 
of every religion should be to elevate the morality and thus in- 
sure the happiness of its devotees. To this end all other aims 
must become subservient, as they are naturally subordinate and 
incidental. Religion considered as a means to the attainment of 
a pure life is divisible into two main aspects — to-wit: faith 
and practice. Faith deals with matters existent, and upon it is 
predicated rules of human conduct. Practice is the conduct regu- 
lated by the rules derived from faith. 

The recognition of God as an object of worship, love and obe- 
dience and as the fountain of existence and authority to which 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 233 

we are accountable is matter of faith — and he who makes such 
recognition possesses religion to that extent. Such faith, how- 
ever, may be conceived as coexistent in the same individual, with 
the most immoral practices. Whenever, in fact, a wilful wrong 
is committed, we have an exhibition of practice which is at va- 
riance with faith. Morality may possibly be practiced without 
faith in those matters which constitute religion proper, although 
no system of practical morality could be founded without refer- 
ence to some supernatural and final authority. The inquiry is 
not so practically important as the manner and means of prac- 
ticing morality. The vast majority of mankind possess religion 
pure and proper. That is to say they recognize God as an object 
or worship, love and obedience, and as the source of all existence 
and authority. It is equally true that the great majority of those 
possessing this religion desire to practice morality. At this point, 
however, the ground ceases to be common and the roads fork 
in a thousand different directions. 

There are those who claim that not only is faith an essential 
in the scheme of salvation, but that the practice of forms and 
ceremonies are indispensable either to morality on earth or safety 
hereafter. This class embraces all of those who, claiming truth 
in faith and practice for themselves, consign all others to perdi- 
tion. 

There are those who believe that practical morality is neces- 
sarily based upon religion as already defined, and that when 
morality thus founded and derived is attained, the essential obli- 
gations of life, have been complied with. This, as I understand it, 
is the essence of Judaism as a religion. To characterize Judaism 
by reference to its peculiar forms and practices rather than by 
the essentials just named, is to confound a name used in classifi- 
cation, with the very substance itself. 

Such an analysis of Judaism — the reduction of it as it were 
to its elements — has not always been and is not productive of 
unmixed good. False logic leads as often to error when the 
premises are true as when they are incorrect. Since pure Judaism 
does not make mere matters of form and ceremony — mere rites 
and rituals — essential to salvation, the hasty reasoner concludes 



234 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

that he may abandon them without peril either to the happiness 
of his existence in the unknown hereafter, or to the morality of 
his conduct in this earthly span of life. It is to this not un- 
popular — this plausible and dangerous fallacy that I desire to 
especially direct attention. 

It may be conceded for the sake of argument, if demanded, 
that a man whose thoughts are always pure and whose feelings 
are always natural and noble and whose deeds are always good 
and who believes in Monotheism attains to the highest aims 
of Judaism, without reference to whether he complies or not 
with mere matters of church discipline or practices the forms 
and ceremonies which serve in a measure to distinguish the pro- 
fessors of Judaism, from the members of other churches. Such 
a concession might perhaps be demanded, as a logical issue of 
the Judaistic scheme. 

But it is the boldest error to assume because of such a base 
possibility, that no convincing reason remains for the preserva- 
tion and practice of rites and ceremonies. Man is a complex 
organization. He is both animal and spiritual. He is both ra- 
tional and emotional. He acquires knowledge, both by intuition 
and by induction. He has desires that spring from calculation 
and from mere sensation. He is impressionable both by in- 
fluences that would affect natures purely animal and by those 
that would move natures purely spiritual. His conduct is actuated 
by mere feeling, emotion and impulse, or by deliberate design 
founded on ratiocination. In dealing with such a complicated 
organization all its parts must be considered. If men were free 
from all animal qualities they could be governed without any 
systematized code of laws other than would be furnished by 
or evolved out of their very constitution. If they were purely 
animals, they could be controlled solely by their appetites and 
their fears. 

Every well regulated system of civil government recognizes 
and provides for the phenomena due to this dual nature of man. 
A code of human laws that treats of men as mere brutes inevita- 
bly leads to revolution, because it is unbearably cruel ; the code 
that regards them as angels results in anarchy, because it is 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 235 

wanting in the strength requisite for order. A pure despotism 
is only possible where the people have not reached to the full 
stature of manhood ; Utopia is only possible when the people have 
risen above it. 

To commit murder is a crime. It is a crime whether for- 
bidden by the law of the land or not and being thus forbidden 
does not make it more a crime. Every well balanced mind will 
admit so simple a proposition. If then it be regarded by all as a 
crime, why forbid it ? Or to go a step further, why interdict the 
carrying of concealed weapons? The answer is simple enough. 
Man has that element in his nature which makes it unsafe to 
rely solely upon his knowledge of the right and his desire to 
practice it. His conduct must necessarily be goverened in great 
measure by his feelings. 

Far be it from me to enhance without warrant, the dignity 
of the emotional part of our nature, but I should be blind if I 
did not recognize that when all is said and done, the world is 
governed, careers are made or blasted, happiness is secured or 
lost, mainly by the emotions of men. 

The greatest events of history have been and always will be 
the result of sentiment. No amount of education can eradicate 
from human nature, the potent influence of the heart as contra- 
distinguished from the mind. No man is above it. When in the 
history of Rasselas we read of the sage who claims that he has 
found happiness in the elimination from his nature of all emotion, 
we discover an appropriate anti-climax in his grief over the death 
of his child. Nothing illustrates the proposition better than the 
death of one that is near and dear. Are you a philosopher who 
reasons that since death is inevitable, grief is unwise and un- 
manly? Have you steeled yourself against the heartaches that 
weaklings feel when the grim destroyer stands at the bedside of 
their beloved ones? If so carry your philosophy always with 
you. Take it to the cradle of your expiring child. Watch its 
fluttering pulse and dying gasps, close the eyelids in their last 
long sleep, compose the rigid little limbs and turn away. In such 
a moment can the shield of philosophy keep from your breast 



236 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

the shafts of anguish ? Believe it not. The bosom will shake and 
the tears will fall, none the less freely because in vain. 

And will you say that such experiences are unproductive of 
results on human conduct ? Is there a man so constituted as to be 
impervious to feeling? One whose breast is unmoved by grief 
or joy, by love, admiration, awe or adoration? Search the wide 
world over and there is not one. The great painters of human 
nature all move their characters by their feelings. To substitute 
any other motive power would be infidelity to nature. 

But feelings do not operate on the abstract. They must be 
in contact with the objects upon which they are exercised or they 
will not respond. They must be moved by some influence before 
they in turn give direction to human conduct. It requires no 
argument to demonstrate that if the emotions are improperly 
moved, they will operate in the wrong direction and thus effect- 
uate a positive wrong. And further that if not properly aroused 
they will become dormant and thus omit the performance of what 
is right. Consequently there can be no doubt that every indi- 
vidual who desires to practice morality, should always seek to 
subject his feelings to proper and to shield them from evil in- 
fluences. And the most boastful of those who claim that they 
are capable of doing the right without extraneous influence, are 
daily governed by influences that proceed from without. Let 
me illustrate. Take a man who claims that he knows what is 
right and that he always does it without pressure of any kind. 
Such a man will surely admit that such charity as he is able to 
dispense, is a duty. Go to him dressed in purple and fine linen 
and solicit money for a family .of starving children. Perchance 
his heart will not beat a throb faster as he mechanically gives 
you a contribution and when you have left him the subject 
passes from his mind. Yet this man has done a charity. Now, 
if you can, lead this man to the hovel to see the pale faced, hol- 
lowed-eyed little ones. Let him hear their piteous cries. Bring 
him face to face with the misery and behold the change. The 
heart beats high in his breast; his eye dim and with a feeling 
of intense gratification he relieves the sufferers. This, too, is 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 237 

only a charity, but it is as much purer than the first, as a living 
rose is purer than a painted counterfeit. 

And thus in our everyday life we are governed by subtle in- 
fluences which we cannot see, but which impel us to evil or lead 
us to good. The play, the opera, the books we read, the conver- 
sations we engage in, the company we keep, the landscape we 
see, the very air we breathe all move us to become better or 
worse. Nothing is so potent for good as devotion. Voltaire, 
who scoffed at all religion, recognized the good influence of 
churches. The very thought that in our devotions, we design to 
cast off all evil considerations and bend our minds and hearts 
to the contemplation of all that is true, beautiful and good in 
God's creation works upon the dormant elements of our natures, 
as the sun does upon the buried seed. The strains of solemn 
music, the pure sentiments that emanate fom the pulpit, elevate 
the spirit and strengthen the determination to practice what we 
believe. The prayers we utter and that we hear our children 
breathe, the traditional feasts and fasts of our people, made holy 
as it were by their hoary antiquity lead us up to the consideration 
of duties that we would otherwise ignore. It is not that the 
chanting of a hymn or the uttering of a formal prayer will of 
themselves make us good and pure ; but the music and the prayer, 
the festival and fast cause us to think of higher and better 
things and thus elevate our natures. It follows that the practice 
of forms of religion becomes influential in the ratio of the at- 
tention with which the forms are observed. When the mind and 
heart are bent to consider why and wherefore certain forms are 
carried out and what they are designed to symbolize, we then 
rise from the concrete to the abstract, and are enabled to think 
of the purely spiritual by means of what is tangible or visible. 
The mind is unequal to pure abstract truth. Who can think of 
charity, without also thinking of an object upon whom or which 
it is to be bestowed ? Who can think of filial duty without at the 
same time thinking of parent and child? We only rise to the 
contemplation of human virtues by the contemplation of their 
manifestations. Thus the greatest teachers of morality taught 
by parables. 



238 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

When the attention does not become fixed, the practice loses 
much, but not all of its virtue. Attention is one thing; inten- 
tion is another. In the illustrations already cited of the two as- 
pects of a charity we can see the distinction. In one aspect there 
was a formal and I might say unfeeling contribution. Here was 
a want of attention. In the other instance the relief was given 
with a compassionate tear and a tender heart. Here was both at- 
tention and intention. Yet while there is a difference in degree 
of merit, both acts were good. So in the observance of forms of 
religion. Let us take the Day of Atonement for the sake of il- 
lustration. It is common to hear men say that they have no 
faith in the efficacy of fasting. That it is nonsense to suppose 
that abstinence from food and drink for twenty-four hours can 
clear them of sin. Hence they do not fast. But they do not 
stop here. Since they do not fast, they deem it manly and coura- 
geous to boast of the fact that they do not observe the holiday 
in that respect. Such hardihood naturally leads to abstinence 
from the prayers appropriate to the solemn day. The prayer 
book remains closed and perhaps even the synagogue is not at- 
tended. The next step is the pursuit of his usual occupation, 
and lo ! what started out to be a simple denial of the efficacy of 
fasting winds up in a practical denial of the doctrine of penitence. 
And such a man claims to believe in God and would resent as an 
insult the slightest imputation upon his desire to be moral. He 
boasts that he can be and is moral without such trumpery prac- 
tice. He does not keep any holiday because, as he argues, if I do 
not keep Kippur day it would be hypocrisy to keep any other 
holy. Finally he eschews all religion and allows his moral nature 
to depend upon his own boasted understanding and the chance 
influences of everyday life. And perhaps he grows and thrives. 
But may it not be said that his is the growth and thrift of the 
weed that flourishes in marshy ground and deadly atmosphere, 
while the flower requires constant attention to develop its perfec- 
tion ? 

I pity the creature that is unable to think of his sins with 
sorrow. I pity the creature who is unwilling to compel his mind 
and heart to contemplate his own shortcomings and who to that 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 239 

end will not sacrifice a physical comfort. There is no Jew who 
does not understand the significance of the Kippur day. Every 
Jewish child knows what it means. It is only the stiff-necked 
fool who predicates an argument upon the intrinsic virtue of fast- 
ing. He knows in his own heart that no saving power is attribu- 
ted to mere abstinence from food and drink. He knows that the 
day is set apart for the contemplation and reparation of the 
wrongs we have done, to consider our sins, to repent of them 
and to make resolution for a better life. He knows as you and I 
and all of us know that fasting is merely an incident. That it is 
a means of bending our minds to holy thoughts. That by the 
abjuration of physical comforts we symbolize our design and 
desire to minify the animal and magnify the spiritual in our na- 
ture. Is it not a notable thing to do ? Is it not beautiful to con- 
template that on that day throughout the world nearly six mil- 
lion Jews have turned their backs on all worldly matters. That 
they are contemplating their sins and repenting, that enmities 
cease, reconciliations are effected, forgiveness extended and re- 
venge abandoned? Let me not be understood as claiming that 
all who fast and pray become good thereby. Perhaps on the mor- 
row the carnival of sin will with many begin a new career. But 
who can measure the good that 'penitence does even among the 
depraved — and who shall say that many are not altogether led to 
higher and better things by the contemplation amidst such solem- 
nity of their own corrupt past. 

"I hold it truth, with him who sings, 
To one clear harp in divers tones, 
That men may rise on stepping stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

And there is virtue in the mere intention to observe this day. 
Though the poor sinner may not be able to bring his lips to 
prayer, or his tongue to the utterance of penitence, yet by sub- 
jecting himself to the discomforts or sufferings of abstinence he 
evidences an intention to observe the traditions of his fathers, to 
observe his religion, to worship his God, to atone for his sins. 



24O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

And such an intention thus expressed, though coupled with no 
attention to the true spirit of the occasion, elevates the man to as 
high a level as he can reach, and in the end he perchance will 
learn the nobler lesson of spiritual penance and devotion. 

The forms and ceremonies of religion necessarily change with 
times and conditions of life. But while they obtain they should 
be observed and practiced ; for a disregard of form and cere- 
mony inevitably leads to a disregard of substance, and the ob- 
servance of them naturally leads to the contemplation of the 
morality which they teach and which we are thus reminded to 
practice. 

A flag flying at the masthead of a ship is only a piece of rag 
unworthy in itself of a serious thought ; but when that ship is an 
American vessel and the flag our national banner, we would 
guard the worthless rag with our lives, our fortunes and our sacred 
honor. The flag is our emblem and love for it and the protec- 
tion we give it, is the form in which we practice our patriotism. 
So long as we guard it from insult our nation is safe from foreign 
aggression ; let us become indifferent to its fate because it is only 
a piece of bunting and how long would it be before the tread of 
a foreign foe would echo in the National Capitol? 

These fasts and festivals, rites and ceremonies are the means 
of attaining the practice of morality. They serve that end and 
as we love the end they serve, we should honor and observe the 
means by which we accomplish that end. The man who irrever- 
ently boasts of his diregard of them may attain the reputation of 
strong-mindedness among the weak and indifferent, but in the 
eyes of all good men, Jew and Gentile, and in the eyes of God, he 
is like unto the traitor who would drag his country's flag in the 
dust, to show how little he cares for a mere rag." 

It is necessary to meet and overcome the desecrating spirit 
of those who lay their ruthless hands upon everything that is 
sacred in our history and our religion. 

Already the conservative Jews are drawing back in alarm. 
They recognize that we are no longer inspired with noble 
thoughts and virtuous resolves by our religious gatherings. 
The cold sermons and classic concerts that distinguish the Amer- 



, THE JEWS IN AMERICA.. 24I 

; ican synagogues arouse no religious fervor, and our children, too 
consistent to attend other churches and repelled by our own, 
are growing up in ignorance not only of Jewish ceremonies but 
also of Jewish faith. It will not do to say that if the principles 
be practical no forms need be followed. It is true that the lat- 
ter are secondary to the former, just as garments are secondary 
to the persons they protect and adorn, but abolish the forms or 
cast away the garments and the principles and persons to which 
they are secondary will freeze to death. Civilization and en- 

K lightenment do not make us superior to the aid of enthusiasm 

t in the practice of virtue. The French logicians claim to formu- 
late a complete code of moral laws without the assistance of 

I religion, but even the cynical Voltaire confessed that "if we had 
no churches we must needs build them." We can not live in the 
rare atmosphere of pure thought. We must have the oxygen 
and nitrogen of feeling or we expire. We have advanced in 

, many things, but in morals we are the same as ever. We live, 
we sin, we suffer, repent and die, and so it will be to the end. 
I lose patience with the shallow fools who boast of "our nine- 
teenth century civilization" as doing away with the "super- 
stitions of religion." In what have we become civilized? It is 
true we have perfected all kinds of machinery, we have facil- 

. itated commerce by rapid transportation and communication, 
etc., ad libitum, but is crime less frequent, are wars less bloody, 
sufferings less acute, misery less prominent and universal? Oh, 

a shame to the boaster, when it is remembered that to-day there are 
millions who are persecuting the Jews in civilized Europe. Shame 
to the boast that ignores the Tisza-Ezlar trial! Shame to the 
boast that is flaunted in the eyes of those who see nihilism and 
socialism honeycombing the social structure of all Europe. 

We are not and never will be above the need of religion. 
It controls us in spite of our reasoning powers, however pro- 

1:1 found we may be. The greatest thinkers have been ruled 
through their feelings. The delicate touch of a woman's hair 
"iias changed the fate of nations by influencing the heart of the 

» greatest and most powerful men. Shall it be said then that we 
are not amenable to the influence of the solemn yet sweet sur- 



242 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

roundings of the temples where we unite in prayer to Israel's 
God. The veriest unbeliever can not remain unaffected amid 
such influences, and though he scoffs at our God, he will be 
swifter because of those influences to worship God by his deeds. 

We must perpetuate our religion. To perpetuate it we must 
stop this wholesale and indiscriminate desecration of its forms. 
It is much easier, however, to point out evils than to prescribe 
remedies. It is easy to say what should not be done, but ex- 
tremely difficult to indicate what should be done. I venture, 
however, to make some suggestions here which occur to me as 
being the solution of the problem presented by the apparent or 
real conflict between some of our forms and practices, and the 
remarkable progress of our present age. 

As has already been remarked, mere forms and ceremonies, 
not being essential to salvation, and being after all merely the, 
means by which the human heart or soul is brought to the recog- 
nition of its duties, these forms and practices are the proper sub- 
ject of change whenever such change becomes necessary in 
order to effectuate the true objects for which the forms and 
practices were instituted. The experience of the world proves 
beyond any question that they cannot be entirely dispensed 
with. I do not propose to engage any further in the discussion 
of that proposition. 

Forms and ceremonies must naturally change, but how, and 
when, and by what authority? Is it not best to follow the 
scriptural injunction, "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways 
and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and 
walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls." — Jer. vi, 16. 

Changes should be made only in deference to a universal de- 
mand and only because the old forms by reason of adventitious 
circumstances have ceased to be effective, but no one should 
arrogate to himself the right to determine when the emergency 
exists for the inauguration of such a change. Innovations 
should always be made with the greatest circumspection. It is 
often better to endure the evils that we are accustomed to than 
by precipitation engage in some novelty that perhaps will end 
in greater embarrassment than that sought to be escaped. To 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 243 

make intelligent and conservative changes in our rituals, in our 
ceremonies and our rites, it should be recognized as necessary, 
first, to have a consensus of opinions that such a change as is 
proposed is not only expedient, but requisite, and, second, that 
such changes be made by some recognized authority. Such an 
authority is a necessity both to ascertain what is necessary and 
to determine how such necessities may be provided for. Where 
and how shall such an authority be created? In Germany and 
France, as has been remarked before, there is something in the 
nature of a Jewish hierarchy, inasmuch as the rabbis are sup- 
ported by the state and are governed inter sese by the prescrip- 
tions of their Sanhedrins or synods. A synod of rabbis in Amer- 
ica would perhaps attain the desired end, but it is not easy to 
convene such a body. Each rabbi being independent of the rest, 
it is next to an impossibility to obtain from them all a sur- 
render of their individual views so that they might all stand 
upon the platform of historic Judaism and then proceed as a 
body to bring about such reformations as are necessary, and 
such only. I would propose that the American rabbis should 
form an association recognizing Judaism in its conservative and 
orthodox forms; recognizing the Jewish creed and the Jewish 
religion proper as something too sacred for human hands to 
touch; but recognizing mere rites, forms and ceremonies as the 
proper subject for intelligent change, so as to make them con- 
form to the spirit of the age and thus increase their effective- 
ness. Such changes, however, should be made gradually and 
not with a mere desire of change, and only as necessity demands. 
Such an association or synod should create from among its 
members a central authority to pass upon mere matters of disci- 
pline during the intervals between the convention of the whole 
body. Such an organization could entertain propositions to 
bring about such changes as are needed and such only, and no 
innovation should be recognized as being in consonance with 
>J\ Judaism, except made under the sanction of some such author- 
ity. Thus would the occupation of the free lance in the pulpit 
come to a most timely end, and our sacred religion, which has 



244 LE0 N - LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

been the target for so many treacherous marksmen, stand once 
more in her ancient dignity before her children. 

This is a bare suggestion of mine and one to which I am by 
no means wedded. Perchance some other plan might be pro- 
posed that would cause me to renounce the one I have men- 
tioned. Perhaps, even in the absence of any substitute being 
offered, I would yield to argument against the feasibility of 
mine. 

I should, perhaps, not leave this subject without a more com- 
plete discussion of the remedies which I propose for the evils 
I point out, but I will be excused when it is considered that it 
is the duty of the people to demand the remedy and of the rabbis 
to supply it. It would be presumptuous in me to formulate a 
plan of procedure. It must arise from a multitude of minds 
after the exchange of ideas. It is our province to recognize our 
want and firmly demand a uniform mode of worship, which 
while conforming to the times and our conditions shall not so 
far trench upon traditional methods as to be entirely dissimilar 
from the practices of our ancestors. What we desire we know, 
what we need we must ascertain, what will answer our needs 
let our church leaders supply. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Wherein is considered the Intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles. 

It has been shown, I trust, that the preservation of the Jews 
as a people is due in a large measure to the veneration they have 
displayed for their traditions and their religion, and the contin- 
uance of this veneration has been urged as a powerful means for 
perpetuating the integrity of the Jews as a people. There is 
another cause, however, which must not be overlooked. The 
Jews have preserved the purity of their blood. If that has been 
a virtue, it was one born of necessity, rather than choice. Until 
a period within the memory of men still living there was scarce- 
ly if any country on the face of the globe in which race preju- 
dice had became so faint as to permit of intermarriages between 
Jews and Gentiles. But of late years, and especially in America, 
it has become possible for the Jews to pass upon the question as 
a matter of choice, instead of accepting, as heretofore, a solution 
dicated by necessity. Being now, to a greater or lesser degree, 
a matter of choice, it becomes important to consider the question, 
shall Jews confine themselves to their own race in matrimony? 
My views will be understood before I express them. I am of 
the opinion that the question should be answered in the affirma- 
tive. The reasons which lead me to that conclusion will prove 
more interesting, however, than the bare opinion itself. 

The young and the impulsive are apt to argue that love is su- 
preme in dictating the selection of husband or wife. That nature 
intended man and woman to mate, and inspired individuals with 
a passion which directs and brings about a proper union; that 
it is worldly and unnatural to deny the heart its choice because 
of any conventional or politic reason, and being unnatural is 
wrong. 

The argument may seem puerile to practical people, but, in- 
asmuch as it is so generally accepted and urged, it merits some 
consideration. 

245 



246 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Nature, or rather the Creator, provided for the perpetuation 
of the human family by making sensual love and philoprogeni- 
tiveness integral parts of human nature. These are qualities 
that are common to all animals. Upon this fact is based the 
claim that nature's promptings should govern in the choice of 
husband or wife. The vice of the argument lies in the disregard 
of the distinction between lust and love. One is purely an ani- 
mal desire ; the other is the offspring, or rather union, of ani- 
mal passion and the more divine affections, such as admiration, 
respect, or esteem. If the mere animal passions should govern 
man as they do the brute in the selection of his mate, no answer 
could be made to the argument, but the very institution of mar- 
riage itself repels such a suggestion. The lower animals have 
no guides but their passions, and have no limits to their con- 
stancy or continence but their desires. We, however, recog- 
nize an obligation incumbent upon us to cleave unto the partners 
of our beds until death the tie doth sever. It is not my purpose 
to discuss marriage either from a political or religious stand- 
point. It is immaterial whether we consider the marriage rite 
as a sacrament God-ordained, or simply a civil contract, in- 
dissoluble save on the grounds of public policy. In either aspect 
the obligations assumed are of life-long duration, and the con- 
sequences following their assumption of the most solemn nature. 
Marriage has been said to be "a fit nursery for the common- 
wealth," and in this aspect it lies at the foundation of govern- 
ment. But beyond and underlying this it is the one and only 
substantial basis of society. It insures the education of the hu- 
man family by making certain the parentage of the young. It 
strengthens and perpetuates parental and filial affection by the 
constant associations and reciprocal duties engendered by the 
family relation. Around it are clustered, in it are enfolded, 
from it emanates every human virtue that makes man the con- 
necting link between the brute and the angel. 

Such a solemn, such an enduring relation should not be 
lightly entered into. No mere sexual desire, no impulse, no feel- 
ings inspired by physical charms, should alone be permitted to 
govern the choice of a partner in the marriage state. The keen 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 247 

edge of youthful appetites wears but too soon away. The dura- 
tion is in the inverse ratio of its keenness. Unhappy indeed are 
those who unite their destinies upon so fragile a foundation. For 
when time has cooled the hot blood of youth and the judgment 
comes into play nothing may be left upon which to build or 
maintain the happiness of home. The profoundest depths of the 
mind should be sounded, the ripest powers of judgment exer- 
cised and the most careful display of taste made, in the choice 
of husband or wife. It is absurd to say that love is blind and 
the heart can not be governed by the head. The most charming 
of all young men and women are to be found among those re- 
cently married, for the reason that the most charming in any 
age or society are as a rule first married. Now, if it were true 
that the heart is ungovernable, would it not follow that every 
young wife or husband must have scores of desperate and heart- 
broken lovers whose mania supervened the marriage? And is 
it not true that no honest man or woman ever indulges the idea 
of being enamored of another's wife or husband as the case may 
be? 

To confess an inability to control one's passion by pride, 
duty or propriety, is to admit that one is more animal than hu- 
man. There is something sublime in the old song : 

"I could not love thee half so much, 
Loved I not Honor more." 

The natural or logical proposition deducible from such prem- 
ises as I have mentioned is plain. When considerations of duty 
and propriety are equal let the impulses of the heart, or body if 
you will, make the choice of a mate ; if duty or propriety stand 
in the way of such a choice, do not make it. Let me not be un- 
derstood as advocating the marriage de convenance. It is as 
much to be decried as the marriage on impulse or passion. I 
strongly and emphatically uphold the good old custom of al- 
lowing the young folks to make their own selections subject to 
the approval of their natural guardians. 

Returning now to the subject proper of this chapter, it re- 



243 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

mains to be seen if there be any considerations of duty or pro- 
priety which should preclude the intermarriage of Jews and 
Gentiles. If there be none, mere race prejudice should not be 
allowed to interfere. As I understand the Jewish religion there 
is no inhibition in its laws against the intermarriage of a Jew 
with a Christian, therefore I can not trace any objection on that 
score. Wherein then lies the obstacle? Theoretically, or rather 
in the abstract, there is none — man and woman were designed to 
procreate, and whether Jew or Gentile, if otherwise equal, all 
men and women stand on a parity before God, and in this 
country, before the law. Theoretically and in the abstract, the 
same reasoning applies to marriages between the negroes and 
the Caucasians. Save for some local restrictions in the latter 
case, the parallel is perfect. But our law-makers in many 
States have for manifest reasons prohibited, with heavy pen- 
alties, the offense of miscegenation. It is certainly no more of 
a malum per se than a marriage between a Spaniard and an 
Irishman, but it is made a malum prohibitum because of its 
frightful consequences. It is unnecessary to dwell upon or elabo- 
rate the political and social disturbances that would follow the 
practice of miscegenation. They are too apparent to need dis- 
cussion. 

I do not pretend, of course, that marriages between Jews and 
^Gentiles would be equally prolific of misfortune. Politically 
such marriages would have but little or no influence, but I do 
maintain that in social relations they would bring about, as a 
rule, what they now accomplish in isolated cases, an unhappy 
state of affairs. Look at the home that grows out of such a 
union. Around the hearthstone there is religious strife or the 
callous indifferance in religious matters, that is the only price 
of peace. Beneath the roof-tree, uncongenial and opposing re- 
lations meet to scowl or sneer at each other. The doors of all 
society are open to such a family as a matter of necessity or 
politeness, but none have "welcome" as a greeting. The children 
grow up without any religious training of the heart or with what 
is more common and unfortunate, a contempt for religion grow- 
ing out of the home surroundings and parental examples. In 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 249 

the nature of things, some of the children will follow the re- 
ligion and people of one parent, while others will travel the op- 
posite road, and thus is severed the natural tie that makes the 
fraternal relation so beautiful to behold and so fruitful of good. 
Society is deeply interested in such unions, for they are made at 
the expense of society. 

I have not overdrawn the picture. If anything, I have done 
it scant justice. All the evils I have named and a thousand 
others flow from such mixed marriages, and these evils are the 
price of a brief indulgence in animal pleasures. I do not gain- 
say that there are exceptions to the rule. They prove rather 
than disprove the rule itself. In rare cases such marriages are 
happy and result in a worthy and affectionate offspring ; in rarer 
cases still such marriages are justifiable. In remote countries, 
sparsely populated, the choice may be between such marriages 
and a worse relation. In such a case the selection is plain, but 
under ordinary circumstances, it seems to me clear that Jews 
should avoid marriages with Gentiles and Gentiles with Jews, 
upon the same principle that we avoid marrying the insane, the 
consumptive, the scrofulitic or the negro. We marry for the 
advancement of our happiness in life and to procreate offspring. 
In transmitting life we should do so in such manner and under 
such circumstances that our offspring may have a life worth 
living. In taking a step which is to affect our happiness, we 
should take it with reference to our happiness to the end of our 
lives, else we may barter the noon and evening of our days for 
a few hours of bliss at dawn. The prudent traveler in cross- 
ing a desert does not drain his flask to assuage his thirst at the 
outset, but husbands every drop with rare calculation to make 
the supply reach to the journey's end. 

The argument I have offered on this subject is more compre- 
hensive than the subject itself, for it applies to all ill-assorted 
unions. It addresses itself entirely to the understanding; it is en- 
tirely utilitarian. Besides this argument ab inconvenienti to the 
Jew there is another growing out of the general duty that he owes 
to his people. If it be a duty of the Jews to preserve the soli- 
darity of the Jews as a people, it is the duty of every Jew 



25O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

to contribute to that end. It is manifest that nothing would 
operate so surely to disintegrate the Jews as intermarriage with 
other peoples. It is not always true that majorities absorb and 
assimilate minorities. The Jews are a striking exception. But 
if the barriers of distinction are thrown down complete assim- 
ilation must ensue. Take away the influence of Jewish sur- 
roundings and education, and Jewish children will grow up as 
heathens or Christians. Lord Beaconsfield and Mendelssohn, 
the musician, are prominent proofs of this fact. The former, 
especially, was proud of his lineage, but he was a Christian by 
belief and at heart, because from infancy he was taught to be- 
lieve in the religion of the Christians. 

One of the regulations of the Roman Catholic Church limits 
the marriages of its members to professors of that faith, save in 
certain excepted cases. The avowed reason of the rule is to 
perpetuate the religion by insuring the education of children in 
the Church. The regulation is founded in that great wisdom 
which characterizes the government of the most systematic in- 
stitution that has ever existed. From the Catholic standpoint 
the regulation is positively good; from no standpoint is it ob- 
jectionable except that the Church itself is an evil. So too 
from the Jewish standpoint it is a virtue to abstain from mixed 
marriages ; from no standpoint is the abstinence objectionable 
unless it be true that the world would be better if we ceased to 
exist as Jews. I shall consider that problem further on, and I 
trust I shall make it plain that the world would suffer by the 
assimilation of a people to whose distinctive existence and the 
fruits thereof it owes so much of its progress, government and 
happiness. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Wherein is Considered the Education of Jewish Children. 

There was a time when gentlemen were thankful that they 
could not read or write, but such indifference to the advantages 
of education no longer exists. I need not, therefore, offer any 
arguments to convince my readers that they should educate 
their children. It is unfortunate that experience has not shown 
the best mode of education, as well as it has proven education 
to be an advantage. No more difficult problem has ever taxed 
the human mind than the proper method of education for the 
young. The greatest thinkers have bent their thoughts to the 
subject, but it still defiantly issues its challenge to the phi- 
losopher. Education is analogous to government. In fact, it 
is a species of government, and like government, it is always 
an open question. We may theorize over abstract propositions, 
we may plan Utopias, we may draft seemingly faultless consti- 
tutions, but we can not provide against all the evils that are 
wont to creep into the government of people. So, too, with 
systems of education. Men are similar in many respects ; they 
are different from each other in more — and general rules for 
their government rarely avail. Children are but lesser men, 
and the difficulties are relatively as great in the management of 
them. Pursuing the analogy, we may learn a lesson from it. 
Statesmanship in the studio is of an easy accomplishment; yet 
nothing is so rare as a great statesman. General principles of 
right and wrong are easily deducible ; their application to par- 
ticular cases very difficult. The statesman must be practical, 
must be governed by circumstances, must adapt himself to 
events that could not have been foreseen. In educating children 
we should be practical, tractable and elastic. No fixed rules 
can govern us. The puny child may not be treated with the 
same freedom as the robust ; the slower mind must not be driven 

251 



252 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

too hard, or the brilliant allowed to go too fast. To the good, 
practical judgment of every parent must be left in a great meas- 
ure the particular method of culture for his children. Assum- 
ing then that education is an advantage, that a liberal educa- 
tion is of special advantage, and that the parent knows how to 
educate his children, let us consider whether there be special or 
any reasons why Jewish children should be peculiarly educated. 

It requires ordinarily thirty years of study to form a man's 
mind and establish his character. Beginning in his sixth year 
he should study books for fifteen years and then study men for 
fifteen more. What is meant usually by education is the training 
which he receives during the first fifteen. It is very clear that 
natures may be warped, expanded, shriveled, perfected or cor- 
rupted by associations and extraneous influences. That goes 
without saying. It is equally true that the mind and heart of 
man is more susceptible to such extraneous influences in youth 
than in manhood. It follows that during youth children should 
be guarded with special care against such influences as may 
tend to deteriorate their characters. Sooner or later we must all 
come in contact with vice and sin, but when the impressionable- 
ness of our nature has given way to mature principles, we cope 
with such influences at least on equal terms. Sooner or later the 
Jews must rub up against the world. We must mingle with 
people of the world, must deal with them, fight them and with 
them. If we are thrown into association with them from in- 
fancy up, the result is easily foretold. We will take our com- 
plexion from such association and lose the distinctive virtues 
which are our boast. We still preserve that reverence for our 
parents which we inherit from the patriarchal times. By suf- 
fering our children to mingle indiscriminately with other chil- 
dren, we endanger the perpetuation of that element of our char- 
acter. 

The good is not so contagious as evil. Bad example is like 
the speck in garnered fruit ; it spreads with fearful rapidity. 
The less discriminate we are in the associations with which we 
surround our children, the greater is the danger of their be- 
coming corrupted. We should not think that mental training 



. THE JEWS IN AMERICA. ?53 

alone is to be considered in educating our children. Their man- 
ners, habits, methods of thought, and, most of all, their morals, 
should be considered. It is necessary that they should have 
some associates, else they lose the stimulus of emulation, but the 
opposite extreme from isolation is perhaps the greater evil. I 
am very clear that children should be educated in groups; I am 
equally clear that the groups should not be constituted by the 
indiscriminate collection of individuals. Avowing such views, 
I shall doubtless be charged with being antagonistic to the free 
school system. I anticipate it by declaring here that I am, on 
the contrary, an earnest advocate of it. The two positions are 
entirely consistent. 

The institution of free schools is clearly and properly within 
the police power of every government, and the revenues de- 
rived from taxation may and should be applied to the free edu- 
cation of any one who desires education. I may add that I am 
not clear that compulsory education is not also a proper exer- 
cise of the same governmental prerogatives. But because the 
government tenders free education, it does not follow that it 
must be accepted ; if education be made compulsory, it does not 
follow that government schools must be attended. The free 
school system is founded upon the public policy which requires 
enlightenment among the people. Society at large is the bene- 
ficiary, and it is to attain that benefit to society that the system 
is inaugurated and maintained. This is the only argument up- 
on which it can be sustained ; it is an argument that can not be 
refuted. As a citizen I favor free schools, because the education 
they afford, imperfect as it is, is better than none, and society is 
benefited thereby; but as an individual I prefer to pay to sup- 
port free schools and send my children to more select places. As 
a citizen, I regard only the good of society; as an individual, I 
look for the good of my own children. 

If, in my judgment, there were but a shade of advantage in 
the private over the public schools, and I could afford the cost, 
I should not hesitate to avail myself of that advantage. In the 
nature of things all classes of children frequent the public 
schools. The offspring of the vilest characters are attendants, 



254 L EO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

and while the sins of the parents may not crop out in the child 
the chance of their reappearance is not inconsiderable, and is 
one we should not take if it may be avoided. It may be said 
that if the rich withheld their children the poor lose the bene- 
fit of good associations, and thus society is prejudiced. To this 
I have two answers : Society is founded upon the selfish regard 
of each parent for the welfare of his own young. It is nature's 
law that we should look after their good first and in the end 
society is the gainer by such selfishness. Again, it does not 
follow that the rich afford the best associations. Many, nay, I 
may say a majority, of children afford good associations even 
though they be of poor parentage, and poverty compels the chil- 
dren of many gentlemen to attend the free school. 

The same reasoning that leads me to the conclusion that nc> 
man, if he can afford it, should fail to send his children to 
private schools, convinces me that every consistent believer in 
any faith should sencL.his children to a school founded upon that 
faith. A man who has been educated as a consistent Roman 
Catholic, will, after a few years of bustling in the world, lose 
the prejudices that are engendered by his training and become 
a better member of society than one whose mind has been cul- 
tivated while his moral nature has grown up in weeds ; and so 
in any other religion. The danger of narrow-mindedness and 
bigotry is very small. These are superficial faults that are worn 
away by a little friction with the world, and when they are 
worn away a solid character founded upon correct moral prin- 
ciples is left to withstand the many temptations of life. 

In my judgment Jewish children should be educated in 
Jewish schools. There they should be taught the liberal sciences 
and arts along with a knowledge of their history and their re- 
ligion. In the nature of things many are too poor to afford the 
expense; they should be assisted. Many live in remote com- 
munities where such schools can not exist. In such cases it 
becomes the duty of the parent to teach his children at home 
that which they can not learn at school. 

It may be said that under any circumstances the parent could 
and should do this. I grant the claim, but alas ! many are not 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 255 

qualified, many will not take the time, and more have not the 
patience. 

Let it be remembered that I am engaged in discussing how 
we can preserve the integrity of the Jews as such, and that I am 
arguing to show that not only is it a positive and direct ad- 
vantage to educate our children as Jews, but it is absolutely 
necessary to our preservation. Experience has shown that our 
young people will be weaned from our people if allowed to in- 
discriminately associate with the Gentiles. The young have no 
armor to oppose bigotry and prejudice, and too often do the 
persecuted ones seek refuge in skepticism or apostasy from the 
shafts directed against them. There can be no possible disad- 
vantage arising from exclusive schools, save the bugbear of pre- 
judice. It is argued again and again that if we continue to be 
exclusive, we shall continue to be the target for prejudice. 

I do not admit this conclusion, but even granting it, is it not 
true that if in deference to prejudice we surrender our qualities 
as Jews, shall we not cease to be Jews? A superficial analysis 
of the prejudice directed against us will show that the prejudice 
is either against our faults or our existence. In so far as we are 
faulty we are justly amenable to censure, but unreasoning preju- 
dice goes further and antagonizes our habits, good or bad, be- 
cause we who practice them are Jews. We can not satisfy such 
bigots. They are like the wolf with the lamb in the fable. It is 
our duty to ourselves, to properly educate our children as Jews, 
and if we are true to ourselves, we can be false to no one. . Any 
prejudice against the right will be lived down ; it can not be 
overcome by concessions. 

The Jews have conceded everything but their religion for 
centuries, yet they did not advance until in France and America 
they were allowed to follow their own bent and did it. In 
France and America we act with more independence than any- 
where else in the world; we have more rights and are more 
respected in France and America than anywhere else. The les- 
son is so plain that he who runs may read. The world respects 
the consistent and manly practice of principles, and we shall 
gain more favor by making ourselves good Jews than by con- 



256 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

stantly seeking to hide the fact that we are Jews. I for one 
should be proud to point to Jewish seats of learning. I am 
proud to point to our charities and our synagogues, and the 
world esteems us because we take such good care of one an- 
other. Let us suppose that we had exclusive Jewish schools 
(and we have some already) and that a Gentile should censure 
us for their institution, what would be the basis of his objec- 
tion? None but that such schools tend to perpetuate the Jews. 
Is it not clear that no other objection can be offered and that 
we can not defer to a prejudice that can not be diverted from 
ourselves without a severance between ourselves and our his- 
tory, our traditions and our religion. No liberal man can or 
will censure our exclusiveness in education or marriage; no un- 
reasonable man can be satisfied by adeeming acquiescence to the 
demands of his prejudice. Let us always find out what is right 
for us to do and do it; let us discover what is best for us to 
do and if right do it, and we need not trouble ourselves about 
the opinion of the world. The world sooner or later gets right 
in its opinions, but never from concessions made to prejudice. 
The sacrifice of principles to prejudice feeds it and it makes it 
grow ; the independent practice of right is its deadliest foe. 

Nor can it be successfully maintained, that exclusive educa- 
tion engenders bigotry and narrow-mindedness. If the educa- 
tion of the Jew were confined to the school room and the limits 
of the school room were narrow and confined, the result upon 
the mind of the pupil would probably be bigotry and narrow- 
mindedness, but the Jew like others, is educated more after the 
school room is abandoned than while he is under the direct in- 
fluence of the pedagogue. Moreover, it is impossible to launch 
upon the world any young mind that is fresh from its books, 
that is free from a multitude of prejudices. The smoothness 
that comes from attrition with the world soon follows however 
the rough edges that are left by contact with mere books. The 
Jewish child is no exception to this rule. If, when he emerges 
from his exclusive school he looks upon the world with colored 
glasses, he will soon learn that his vision will be clearer and his 
conception of external objects more perfect if viewed with un- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 257 

obstructed gaze, and the prejudices that he takes with him from 
musty tomes will one by one be surrendered until he comes to 
look upon his surroundings from the standpoint of a citizen of 
the world. Practical experience establishes the truth of this 
proposition more forcibly than any amount of theories. There 
are schools in which the Jews are educated as Jews and from 
them emerge men of high talent and great energies, who achieve 
unbounded success in the world, and not less so than those who 
have their infant minds molded by contact with environments 
that are foreign and hostile to them. The Jewish youth who is 
educated in the German universities is apt to become, as ex- 
perience shows, either an apostate to his religion in fact, or 
what is worse, a hypocrite, in that he ostensibly abjures a faith 
which in truth he reveres. All efforts that have been made to 
proselyte adult Jews, have proven abortive. The explanation 
of the failure is to be found in the fact that the Jewish child has 
been educated as a Jew. Once we permit the ever active mis- 
sionary to invade the school room and practice upon the impres- 
sionable minds of our children the perpetuity of our people will 
end. Israel will cease to have a distinct existence among the 
peoples of the earth and the historian alone will be left to weep 
over our faded glory. 

"Art and eloquence 

And all the shows o' the world, are frail and vain 
To weep a loss that turns their light to shade. 
It is a woe 'too deep for tears' when all 
Is reft at once, when some surpassing Spirit, 
Whose light adorned the world around it, leaves 
Those who remain behind, not sobs or groans, 
The passionate tumult of a clinging hope — 
But pale despair and cold tranquility."* 



*Shelley's Alastor. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Wherein is considered Jewish social life and its proper 
regulation. 

Having taken the position that as Jews we should educate 
our children in Jewish schools so far as practicable — and should 
confine ourselves in marriages to our own people, it may be as- 
sumed that I favor exclusiveness to a certain extent in social 
life. 

My reasons against mixed marriages have been sufficiently 
considered. My reasons for exclusive schools have also been 
stated. It remains for me to explain why adult Jews should be 
to a certain extent exclusive in their social life. I may say 
in the outset that my convictions grow out of considerations 
that apply with equal force to all classes of people, as well as to 
the Jews. Whether necessarily or not, it is inevitable that classes 
should exist in society. All men are not equal, and I believe it 
is safe to claim that they never will be. Some are better, purer, 
braver, more enlightened and more refined than others. In no 
country since creation's dawn have all men been on a footing of 
social parity. To create social equality it would be necessary 
to elevate the lower, or degrade the better elements. The pro- 
cess of elevation m and degradation is constantly in progress. 
Those that are high, fall; those that are low, rise. In that law 
of social life is involved much of the advance of civilization. 

I shall not stop to consider it at length as it would involve 
too wide and far-reaching a digression. In every man whose 
nature is normal there exists the ambition to rise in the social 
scale. Such ambition is worthy and should be stimulated. It 
has given to the world many of its greatest heroes. If it were 
possible to abolish class distinctions in society, this ambition 
would perish for want of nourishment. When I mention class 
distinctions I do not refer to classes before the law. Before the 

258 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 259 

tribunal of justice the fustian should rank with the velvet. Gov- 
ernment should confine itself to the protection of society which 
creates it for that purpose, and not seek to become greater than 
its creator by prescribing the elements of society. There exists 
no valid reason why any man should be esteemed better than 
another, save because of his merits. If he is not possessed of 
such merits, it is a wrong upon society for government to give 
him such pre-eminence; if he be deserving public opinion will 
furnish the elevation without the aid of governmental interfer- 
ence. Aristocracy is a great good when based upon merit, and 
in every country independently of laws on the subject there 
exists such an aristocracy. Its elements are constantly chang- 
ing. New members are being constantly admitted and old ones 
expelled. Its sphere is the world, its open sesame, gentility. To 
every one irrespective of race or creed, it is open, provided the 
applicant be possessed of the requisite qualifications. It should 
be the aim of every man to join this circle. 

The history of the Jews has precluded them from belonging 
to this class in any considerable numbers. It is needless to 
rehearse here what is presumed to be well-known to all of my 
readers. Suffice it to say that by reason of oppressive laws and 
bigoted persecutions, the Jews have for centuries been com- 
pelled to resort to subterfuges, hypocrisy and other doubtful 
practices, which all operated against their enlightenment, moral- 
ity and refinement. In this great country we are relieved from 
the causes which have generated the evil in our habits and na- 
tures, and it behooves us to illustrate our elasticity and inherent 
virtue, by advancing to the high plane of gentility from which 
we have so long been debarred. But we can not spring from the 
cellar to the roof. The persecuted "dog of a Jew" whose gab- 
erdine was but yesterday the garb of dishonor, can not in a 
day by casting his old vestments aside, become a gentleman 
Liberty permits and enjoins us to improve, but again I say "re- 
form does not mean revolution." 0«r progress must be grad- 
ual in order to be sure. It has already been abundantly proven 
in America that Jews may and do obtain a safe footing on the 
broad plane of gentility. The instances are limited, because our 



260 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

opportunities have been of short duration. We are as a class 
in America in a chrysalis state. We are as different among 
ourselves individually as we are from the world as a people. 
Our general character is passing through a formative period. 
Sooner or later, I confidently expect that such a proportion of 
Jews will improve, that, despite a large element of dross among 
us, we shall be called a people of gentlemen. To that end we 
should strive with untiring devotion. In that effort we should 
aid each other with fraternal unselfishness. How shall we best 
accomplish that end? 

The answer will be offered at once, that since the exemplars 
of gentility mostly abound among the Gentiles, we should asso- 
ciate with them as much as possible, in order to wear our own 
rudeness away. I have always been met by this suggestion, 
and while the answer thereto is complete, its practical operation 
is difficult. If gentlemen were willing to meet all Jews on a 
parity because they are Jews, we should doubtless derive much 
benefit from such association. But, while it is true that no gen- 
tleman refuses association with another because that other is a 
Jew, he will not, as a rule, associate with a Jew unless he be a 
gentleman. As we are far from being all gentlemen, we can 
not reasonably expect to be admitted as a class into good so- 
ciety. If, therefore, we desire as a class to associate in social 
life with Gentiles, we must seek our level or meet with humil- 
iating repulses. Our level in social life is quite low, and those 
among the Gentiles who rank with us in social attributes are far 
below us in other respects. From such associations we should 
derive no good and much harm. I apprehend that no one will 
gainsay the two propositions I have announced, viz: 1st. That 
we have no right as a class to expect recognition as equals from 
gentle society. 2d. That from association with the lower ele- 
ments we should experience more evil than good. But, un- 
fortunately, our people are vain. We are apt to "see the mote 
in our neighbor's eye, and ignore the beam in our own." 

We are much like the Puritans who thanked the Lord that 
they were not as other men. I shall find no end to the number 
of Jews that will agree with me when I assert that we as a class 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 26l 

are not gentle, but alas, I should have to search like Diogenes 
with a lantern for one who does not claim to be an exception. 
Herein lies a great difficulty. We are critical enough to detect 
our neighbors' shortcomings, but once we have acquired wealth, 
rich garments, commercial standing, etc., we imagine that we 
have crossed over the line that separates the lower from the 
better classes. Impressed with this idea many of us turn our 
backs upon our own people and obtrude ourselves upon others. 
The result is ridicule, prejudice, disgust and often rude rebuffs. 
Society can not be obtruded upon. It will not tolerate it, nor 
does it require it. It draws its members by attraction, just as 
the sun draws the moisture to form clouds. Whenever we 
possess the necessary qualifications gentle society will discover 
it, and extend its invitation to us. Meanwhile let us be modest. 
While we strive for great ends, do not let us anticipate the 
honors we aim for. It is the fool who wears the laurel before 
the fight. 

But while it is true that but a small minority of our people 
have attained the standard required by good society, there are 
unquestionably some who have. The questions will be asked: 
Should this few continue to associate with the Jews who are 
confessedly beneath them, or mingle with their equals of other 
creeds? Is there any good reason why a Jewish gentleman 
should associate with a Jewish boor? To such inquiries I make 
this answer: The Jewish gentleman should associate with his 
equals, irrespective of creed or nationality, but he should not 
entirely deny himself to his own people. He has a double 
duty to perform. As a gentleman he owes his co-operation 
to gentle society; as a Jew he owes the benefit of his example 
and association to his people. He should be to them a preceptor 
by example. His life should be a standing encouragement to 
ambition, a standing rebuke to rudeness. As before stated, we are 
passing through a formative period. We have no distinct char- 
acter at present, for the many heterogeneous elements have not 
had time to arrange themselves into a consistent whole. In due 
time we shall settle down and then there will be classes among 
us as among other people. 



262 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Until recently a community of suffering has kept all Jews on 
a level with respect to one another. Liberty permits us to 
emerge from that condition and regulate our relations 
among ourselves upon a different principle. We shall 
have an aristocracy among ourselves as certainly as there 
was one among the Jews before they became the target 
for universal persecution. Until that time at least we 
should assist each other unto the end that while our char- 
acter as a people is being formed, the better elements 
may predominate. We should be a school unto and within our- 
selves. It is sad indeed to see how prone are our Jews to forget 
and abjure their own people. When prosperity and opportunity 
enable a Jew to rise superior to his people, how seldom does he 
concern himself about what is behind him. He is like the selfish 
climber who draws the ladder up when he is at the top, instead 
of holding it in place for the next. It will, I trust, be remarked 
that I do not favor non-intercourse with Gentiles. On the con- 
trary^ I strongly oppose it. When our children grow old enough 
to have well-settled convicitons on matters of principles, I favor 
a general association with their equals drawn from any source. 
In many instances I think the finishing touches of a liberal edu- 
cation should be derived at a cosmopolitan university. I believe 
that social intercourse between the better classes of different 
peoples is a benefit to both, but I am equally clear that the lower 
class will be prejudiced by such admixture. 

It will further be observed that I do not base my conclusions 
upon prejudice or fear, nor upon the theory that the Jew and 
Gentile are like oil and water, and will not mix. I can not base 
it upon prejudice, for I have none. I love not the Gentile less be- 
cause I love my people more. Moreover, I am frank to admit 
that while we have stronger and more enduring virtues than 
any other people, we have also deep-rooted faults which preclude 
us from claiming equality with the better class of Gentiles. I 
do not object to association because we are superior to the 
Gentiles, but because we are inferior to their better class. I do 
not oppose intercourse because of any fear, because I am con- 
vinced that any adult Jew who has been properly reared as 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 263 

such is in no danger of abjuring his religion, because of such 
intercourse. The young or the ignorant or the hypocrites may 
become apostates from Judaism, or intermarry with the Gentiles, 
but it is a rare occurrence for an enlightened adult Jew to be- 
come an honest convert to any other religion. I do not oppose 
intercourse because the two peoples can not mix, for the idea is 
absurd. We mix with them every day of our lives. We mix 
with them in business, in politics and on the field of battle, why 
should we not mix with them in social life, other things being 
equal ? 

In leaving this subject I may be allowed to say, that in this, 
as in education and intermarriages, we must be governed largely 
by circumstances. There are communities where there can be 
no distinct Jewish society, there are circumstances under which 
the bar of exclusiveness should be raised higher than usual, or 
thrown down entirely. The discretion of some of our people, 
and their good sense, may be trusted more than others, and, in 
fact, a thousand exceptions may be found to the general rule. 

I have already sufficiently commented upon the argument 
founded upon prejudice against our exclusiveness, and I shall 
not devote any attention to it here. If it be in the line of our 
advancement to be more or less exclusive, the world is the gain- 
er, and any prejudice against it is unreasonable and should not 
be regarded. 

The careful reader will have observed that in discussing the 
proper relations that should exist between the Jews and the 
Gentiles I have considered the parties as classes. In that aspect 
of the matter, as I have already shown, I favor, for the present 
at least, a policy of largely restricted intercourse. For fear that 
I shall be misunderstood, I deem it proper to discuss, in ad- 
dition to what has been written, the relations of individual Jews 
to Gentiles as a class, and of the Jews as a class to individual 
Gentiles. 

Nothing is so calculated to quicken the perception, mature 
the judgment and broaden the mind of a person as intercourse 
with others. Travel in strange lands has always been recog- 
nized as one of the most valuable means of education. When 



264 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

such intercourse can be had without endangering the morality 
of the person seeking it, it should be encouraged, but when, as 
I have shown, it is fraught with grave danger, it should be 
avoided. The medicine which benefits a strong man may be 
death to a child. In these matters we must exercise the same 
judgment that governs the intelligent physician in prescribing 
strong medicines. 

The reasons which obtain against a general intercourse with 
Gentiles do not and can not apply to individual Jews who are 
free from the shortcomings that give force to those reasons. 
Given a Jew who is possessed of noble instincts, who is edu- 
cated, pure, refined and gentle, and there exists no reason why 
he should not seek the society of his equals in the great world. 
Such a man does not shrink from the name of Jew. He is proud 
of it and stands ever ready to defend it. He is not sensitive to 
the mention of his people, but stands ready to extol their virtues 
and palliate their faults. He is in no danger of becoming an 
apostate, for his heart clings to the traditions of his ancestors, 
and his mind recognizes in the simple grandeur of his creed the 
incomparable truth of God-worship. He will not intermarry 
with the Gentiles, for he is an aristocrat, proud of his lineage, 
and to his children he would bequeath an unmixed strain of 
pure Jewish blood. But he will mingle with high-minded and 
cultured people. He will teach them the philosophy learned 
from centuries of suffering; he will show them the patience that 
no persecution could destroy, a courage that no terrors could 
daunt. He will learn in his turn the blessings of the liberty his 
people now enjoy, he will grow strong in his permitted man- 
hood, he will read in the liberality of a new era the palladium of 
his people's future and will grow more devout in his praise of 
Him who after so many years has at last shown us the silver}' 
lining of the clouds. And he will not selfishly hug to himself 
the privileges he enjoys and the lessons he learns, but he will 
come back to his people and show them through himself the re- 
ward which lies within the reach of every Jew who does honor 
to the name. He will not scorn his people because they are not 
his equals. His people are to him an Alma Mater, to whom he 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 



265 



will return again and again with loving words, just as the faith- 
ful son returns to his humble mother in her lowly hut, albeit he 
has conquered the world. The Jew that fails to give his people 
the benefit of his culture, refinement and success, can only be 
likened to those ungrateful children who, though sprung from 
humble parentage, rise in the world and then ignore their pa- 
rents as incumbrances. 

I am thus earnest in denunciation of such baseness, because 
the history of our people proves how prone they are to ignore 
the past. In times of suffering they were ever contrite and 
humble to superior authority, devout in religion and tender to 
one another; but when prosperity dawned upon them they be- 
came haughty and impatient, indifferent to their holy religion, 
and rude to one another. In this they resemble those plants 
which flourish in dark and noisome places, but become dwarfed 
in the sunshine. 

I can not too strongly urge upon parents the duty of im- 
pressing duly upon the minds of their children the obligations 
they owe to their people. They should be taught that it is 
neither a disgrace nor a misfortune to be born a Jew ; that there 
is no higher patent of nobility. Our history proves us to be 
like the rich soil .which grows in luxuriance the most noxious 
weeds and the choicest flowers. Remembering always the 
source of the growth — the fundamental virtues within us — the 
soil as it were of our natures, we should not flee from the weeds, 
but rather pluck them out, to give stronger growth to the 
flowers. 

Let me now briefly consider the relations of the Jews to indi- 
vidual Gentiles : 

It not infrequently occurs that Gentiles of culture and re- 
finement, impressed with the history and inherent virtues of the 
Jews, desire and seek social intercourse with our people. I 
should be grieved if I have created the impression that to 
such people I would close our doors. On the contrary I would 
extend to them the warmest welcome. They do us a double 
honor in that they become our guests, and that in their conduct 
they recognize our virtues to overbalance our faults. Finally, 



266 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

let me remark that by intercourse I mean that unrestrained com- 
mingling of spirit as well as of persons. In the nature of things, 
from reasons of expediency and motives of courtesy, there 
exists, and must continue a formal admixture, which is devoid 
of any flow of soul. Against this, under any circumstances, 
there can be no valid objection, for in it there is little if any sig- 
nificance. 

Life would not be worth living if it were not for the many 
pleasures experienced in social intercourse. In the meeting of 
friends or congenial companions the cares of life are forgot- 
ten, the spirits are set free as the spring sunshine frees the ice in 
the frozen river, and all the generous and better emotions are 
put in exercise. Freedom from restraint, ease, the sense of 
home must be present, to accomplish such results. Uncongenial 
elements, if brought together, utterly fail to generate the happy 
feelings which should predominate. We seek society in order to 
obtain such pleasures. The associations which I have referred 
to are the kind which are sought in compliance with the native 
social demands of our being. 

The better to facilitate such happiness in every country and 
in every age, various kinds of organizations have existed as 
they exist today. The Jews have theirs. 

For many reasons they are exclusive. In theory they should 
not be so. In our social organizations we should, in deference 
to the argument which I have already named, admit any con- 
genial and worthy Gentile who honors us with his application. 
But what may be theoretically correct may be found practically 
wrong. It certainly is a wrong to exclude a worthy person be- 
cause he does not happen to be a Jew; but on the other hand 
where are you to draw the line. If we make the qualities of 
gentility prerequisites to admission among us, we shall exclude 
those who may justly charge us with being no better than they. 
When we shall have passed through the formative period and 
have progressed far enough to have a true aristocracy of our 
own we may carry out in practice what is undoubtedly true in 
theory. But while we are undergoing formation, so to speak, 
we must either remain unto ourselves, mix indiscriminately with 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 267 

others, or the few advanced Jews must abandon their more un- 
fortunate brethren, Of the three evils the first seems to me 
unquestionably the least. 

In advocating this view I have had to encounter the objection 
that we are doing that which if done to us would give us great 
pain. I have been asked, what if an organization should ex- 
clude us because we are Jews? Would it be right? To such I 
answer this : If a number of Roman Catholics felt that because 
of that common tie they could enjoy social life by and through 
an organization composed solely of Roman Catholics we should 
not feel hurt at being excluded. Along with us would be ex- 
cluded many others, and it would be apparent that the exclusion 
was not directed outward but inward. In other words we 
would not be excluded because we are Jews, nor the Protestant 
because he is a Protestant, but we would all be excluded be- 
cause we are not Catholics. So again if the American Colony 
in Paris excluded from their social organization all but Ameri- 
cans, the Austrian or Italian have no reason to complain. If 
only Austrians were excluded there would be just ground for 
complaint. If from any organization only Jews were excluded, 
and the exclusion applied to all Jews, we would have a right 
to resent the affront, for it would be designed as such. It is 
clear, however, that when we exclude all but Jews from our or- 
ganization, there is no assumption of superiority in ourselves, 
there is no imputation of inferiority in others. We simply de- 
clare that we can best attain the pleasures of social life by ex- 
clusion, and for that reason we prefer to remain exclusive. 
The gist of the whole matter lies in the intention. When Jews 
are denied admission to a public place because they are Jews, 
a stamp of inferiority is sought to be fastened upon us. But if 
a Jew be denied admission to a. Catholic institution because he 
is not a Catholic nothing of ill or inferiority is imputed to him. 
A Protestant Christian or a Mohammedan would meet with a 
like rebuff. 

But the question is an idle one. Gentiles do not trouble Jew- 
ish organizations with their applications, nor do they feel hurt 
at the knowledge that they can not be admitted as members. 



268 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

The objection which is formulated in the question grows out of 
a morbid fear that we will do that which will excite the anti- 
Semitic spirit of the world. Such a fear is groundless. Wher- 
ever that spirit exists it will develop without waiting for such 
provocation. In America the great principles of liberty have al- 
most destroyed that spirit, and it is only individuals who re- 
ceive censure ; the Jews as a class are not the objects of preju- 
dice. The genius of this our new Jerusalem forbids such class 
prejudice, and it is dying out. 

"Fused in her candid light, 
To one strong race, all races here unite ; 
Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemen 
Forget their swords and slogan, kith and clan ; 
Twas glory once to be a Roman; 
She makes it glory, now, to be a Man."* 



*Bayard Taylor's "National Ode." 



CHAPTER IX. 
Wherein is considered Jewish Charities. 

The tendency toward generalization among modern Ameri- 
can Israelites has in many instances been carried to a point from 
which even sectarian charities are denounced. It is but the log- 
ical issue of the doctrine which condemns exclusiveness in social, 
educational and religious matters. There is no stronger argu- 
ment against the confinements which surround our social and 
religious life than against the limitation of our charities. From 
the standpoint of those who eloquently advocate the universal 
brotherhood of man, it must be sinful to house and feed and 
clothe the Jewish orphan, while the juvenile and parentless Hot- 
tentot is not sufficiently supplied with red flannel shirts and 
Bibles. The answer to such objections is not difficult. 

It is true that charity should be universal, just as it is true 
that we should love all of our fellow-men. But, as already 
shown, if we love one another with a like degree of affection 
our love would be indifference, and would thus cease to be of 
value. It is equally true that if we could distribute our char- 
ities with impartial hands to all the needy in the world, it would 
fail in its object, which is the relief of suffering. Charity 
should be universal in the sense that everybody should be char- 
itable, but it is absurd to contend that every charitable person 
should bestow his gifts universally. Charity loses its virtue 
when it is not effective, and it is more injurious than beneficial 
when not wisely bestowed. 

Each individual can afford only a certain contribution for 
charitable purposes — so of communities and classes. Experience 
has demonstrated that when the contributions of a large number 
are combined more good is accomplished by the aggregated 
fund than by a like sum distributed directly by the individuals. 
I need not pause to explain the premises of this universally ac- 

260, 



27O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

cepted conclusion. The reasons are obvious. The main reason 
is the power and effect of concentration as contrasted with the 
weakness and inefficiency of diffusion. A volume of water con- 
fined between banks scours for itself a channel to the sea; if 
diffused over a wide surface it becomes stagnant and evaporates. 
Charitable contributions should be concentrated for intelligent 
and effective distribution. The distribution should extend to 
the furthest limits within which it will always be effective. The 
object being effectiveness, the limits should be fixed with ref- 
erence thereto. 

I do not by any means advocate that Jews shouid absolutely 
confine their charities to the Jews — but I maintain that when 
the means of the Jews are limited they should first be appro- 
priated to alleviating the wants of those having the highest 
claim. The doctrine that charity begins at home needs no cham- 
pion. The heart of every humane person furnishes evidence in 
its support that is unanswerable. It is upon that doctrine, and 
no other, that I contend that since our means are not co-equal 
with all objects of charity, we may and should properly first 
devote them to caring for Jewish wants. 

The wisest and purest international jurists hold that, while 
in the abstract every man has the right to exercise his natural 
prerogatives in any clime, yet it is competent for any nation to 
abridge those prerogatives among foreigners in order the 
greater to benefit its own citizens. Thus one nation may be 
starving for want of a market for the exchange of its own 
product for breadstuff s, and yet another government may be 
justified in protecting its own people by denying the commerce. 
Again, in case of pestilence, not only does one nation quaran- 
tine against another, but communities in the same nation shut 
themselves up against their neighbors. This is not only the law 
of self-defense ; it is also the principle that charity begins at 
home. Nations and communities care first for their own suffer- 
ings, as in duty bound they should, and so with classes by what- 
ever limits they are defined. But it is contended that there 
should be no classes founded on religious belief. As I have 
already shown, the Jews are to be classed more by reason of 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 27 1 

the race idea than because of the Jewish religion. But con- 
ceding the fact upon which the objection is made against classes 
based on religious belief, is it sound? I have not discovered 
any reason for such a distinction save one, and of that I shall 
make brief mention in the next chapter. It is conceded by all 
that all suffering should be alleviated as far as possible, and 
that every man should contribute his quota to that end. It 
follows then that every Jew in want is entitled to aid, and that 
every Jew of means should be charitable, and so of every Gen- 
tile. It is too clear for argument that if Jewish contributions 
were indiscriminately made, and Jewish suffering left to the 
charity of the world at large, the suffering Jews would not re- 
ceive as much aid, nor would Jewish contributions accomplish 
as much good as now. Under a system of sectarian chari- 
ties imposition can be better guarded against than under any 
other system, and beyond all question a better organization can 
be effected for the distribution of contributions. The world at 
large is interested in such results as well and as much as we, 
for if we effectually care for our own poor we relieve the bal- 
ance of the world of that charge. 

But there are a multitude of other arguments in favor of 
sectarian charities. The contributors are brought into more 
direct contact with the sufferers and are moved by this and the 
further consideration of a common faith to more liberal con- 
tributions. 

Again, in orphan asylums and homes for the widows, the aged 
and infirm, if sectarianism be observed, the inmates move in a 
congenial atmosphere; they can be educated from a common 
standpoint and practice their religion at a common altar. These 
and many other advantages are incidents to sectarianism which 
argue in its favor. The corresponding disadvantages are equally 
potent against mixed charities. But the great argument is ef- 
fectiveness. Every church recognizes this and practices it, and 
herein lies another advantage, for different churches emulate 
one another in the good they accomplish, and are thus led to a 
more liberal support of their respective charities. 



CHAPTER X. 

Wherein is considered the prejudice against the Jews. 

I now come to consider the only argument I have ever heard 
advanced by the Jews against Jewish charities : It gives rise to 
prejudice! There is something so cowardly in this that I have 
but little patience with it. If it were true that prejudice is 
aroused against us because we house and clothe our poor and 
educate our orphans, it would become us as men to defy a preju- 
dice that would do us honor and shame those that display it. 
Shall we shrink from virtue because it is jeered at or condemned 
by the wicked? Alas, it is too frequently the case that men are 
misled from the right because evil minds ridicule and decry it. 
We have indeed degenerated if we can not endure what, under 
this government, can only be a prejudice. Our history is full of 
the manhood that withstood the persecution of every tyrant from 
the earliest ages to the present. 

But, is it true that the exclusiveness I have advocated ex- 
cites prejudice? Have we not always been exclusive? And were 
we not in the greatest degree the objects of persecution when 
we were compelled by law to be exclusive ? Are we not respected 
to-day as a class by right-thinking men for virtues that are pecu- 
liar to us as a class? When Disraeli gave his "Coningsby" to the 
world he was not the Premier of Great Britain, and, as such, 
arbiter of the fate of Europe, but his genius smote a chord in 
the public heart that furnished answering music, unhushed to the 
present day. Read what he says of the Jews, and remember that 
it was received with favor by the reading world of this progres- 
sive century : 

"You never observe a great intellectual movement in Europe 
in which the Jews do not greatly participate. The first Jesuits 
were Jews ; that mysterious Russian Diplomacy which so alarms 
Western Europe is organized and principally carried on by Jews ; 
that mighty revolution which is at this moment preparing in 

272 






THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 273 

Germany, and which will be, in fact, a second and greater re- 
formation, and of which so little is as yet known in England, is 
entirely developing under the auspices of Jews, who almost mo- 
nopolize the professorial chairs of Germany. Neander, the 
founder of Spiritual Christianity, and who is Regius Professor 
of Divinity in the University of Berlin, is a Jew. Benary, equally 
famous, and in the same University, is a Jew. Wehl, the Arabic 
Professor of Heidelberg, is a Jew. Years ago, when I was in 
Palestine, I met a German student who was accumulating ma- 
terial* for the History of Christianity, and studying the genius 
of the place ; a modest and learned man. It was Wehl, then un- 
known, since become the first Arabic scholar of the day, and the 
author of the life of Mohammed. But for the German profes- 
sors of this race, their name is legion. I think there are more 
than ten at Berlin alone. 

"I told you just now that I was going up town to-morrow, 
because I always made it a rule to interpose when affairs of 
State were on the carpet. Otherwise, I never interfere. I hear 
of peace and war in newspapers, but I am never alarmed except 
when I am informed that the sovereigns want treasure; then I 
know that monarchs are serious. 

"A few years back we were applied to by Russia. Now, there 
has been no friendship between the Court of St. Petersburg and 
my family. It has Dutch connections, which have generally sup- 
plied it ; and our representations in favor of the Polish Hebrews, 
a numerous race, but the most suffering and degraded of all 
tribes, have not been very agreeable to the Czar. However, cir- 
cumstances drew to an approximation between the Romanoffs 
and the Sidonias. I resolved to go myself to St. Petersburg. I 
had, on my arrival, an interview with the Russian Minister of 
Finance, Count Cancrin. I beheld the son of a Lithuanian Jew. 
The loan was connected with the affairs of Spain ; I resolved on 
repairing to Spain from Russia. I traveled without intermission. 
I had an audience immediately on my arrival with the Spanish 
Minister, Senor Mendizabel ; I beheld one like myself, the son 
of a Nuevo Christiano, a Jew of Arragon. In consequence of 
what transpired at Madrid, I went straight to Paris to consult 



2 74 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

the President of the French Council: I beheld the son of a \ 
French Jew, a hero, an imperial marshal, and very properly so, 
for who should be military heroes if not those who worship the 
Lord of Hosts?" 

"And is Soult a Hebrew?" 

"Yes, and others of the French marshals, and the most fa- 
mous, Massena, for example ; his real name was Manasseh ; but | 
to my anecdote. The consequence of our consultations was, that 
some Northern power should be applied to in a friendly and me- 
diative capacity. We fixed on Prussia, and the President of the 
Council made an application to the Prussian Minister, who at- 
tended a few days after our conference. Count Arnim entered 
the cabinet and I beheld a Russian Jew. So you see, my dear J 
Coningbsy, that the world is governed by very different per- 
sonages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the 
scenes." 

"You startle and deeply interest me." 

"You must study physiology, my dear child. Pure races of 
Caucasus may be persecuted, but they can not be depised, except I 
by the brutal ignorance of some mongrel breed, that brandishes 
fagots and howls extermination, but is itself exterminated, with- 
out permission, by that irresistible law of Nature which is fatal 
to ours. 

"Favored by Nature and by Nature's God, we produced the 
lyre of David; we gave you Isaiah and Ezekiel; they are our * 
Olynthians, our Philippics. Favored by Nature we still remain ; 
but in exact proportion as we have been favored by Nature we 
have been persecuted by man. After a thousand struggles, after 
acts of heroic courage that Rome has never equaled ; deeds of € 
divine patriotism that Athens, and Sparta, and Carthage have 
never excelled ; we have endured fifteen hundred years of super- j 
natural slavery, during which every device that can degrade or ... 
destroy man has been the destiny that we have sustained and 
baffled. The Hebrew child has entered adolescence only to learn f 
that he was the Pariah of that ungrateful Europe that owes to % 
him, the best part of its laws, a fine portion of its literature, all 
its religion. Great poets require a public; we have been con- ^ 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 275 

tent with the immortal melodies that we sung more than two* 
thousand years ago by the waters of Babylon and wept. They 
record our triumphs; they solace our affliction. Great orators 
are the creatures of popular assemblies ; we were permitted only 
by stealth to meet even in our temples. And as for great writers, 
the catalogue is not blank. What are all the school men, Apuinas 
himself, to Maimonides, and as for modern philosophy, all 
springs from Spinoza. 

"But the passionate and creative genius, that is the nearest 
link to Divinity, and which no human tyranny can destroy, though 
it can divert it ; that should have stirred the hearts of nations by 
its inspired sympathy, or governed senates by its burning elo- 
quence, has found a medium for its expression, to which, in spite 
of your prejudices and your evil passions, you have been obliged 
to bow. The ear, the voice, the fancy teeming with combina- 
tions, the imagination fervent with picture and emotion, that came 
from Caucasus, and which we have preserved unpolluted, have 
endowed us with almost the exclusive privilege of Music; that 
science of harmonious sounds, which the ancients recognized as 
most divine, and deified in the person of their most beautiful 
creation. I speak not of the past ; though were I to enter into 
the history of the lords of melody, you would find it in the annals 
of Hebrew genius. But at this moment even, musical Europe 
is ours. There is not a company of singers, not an orchestra in 
a single capital, that is not crowded with our children under the 
feigned names which they adopt to conciliate the dark aversion 
which your posterity will some day disclaim with shame and dis- 
gust. Almost every great composer, skilled musician, almost 
every voice that ravishes you with its transporting strains, springs 
from our tribes. The catalogue is too vast to enumerate; too 
illustrious to dwell for a moment on secondary names, however 
eminent. Enough for us that the three great creative minds to 
whose exquisite inventions all nations at this moment yield — 
Rossini, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, are of Hebrew race; and little 
do your men of fashion, your muscadins of Paris, and your dan- 
dies of London, as they thrill into raptures at the notes of a Pasta 



276 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

or a Grisi — little do they suspect that they are offering their hom- 
age to 'the sweet-singers of Israel !' " 

It will be observed that D'Israeli assumes and insists upon 
classing the Jews as a race and not as a religious community. 

When the "Lasker Resolutions" and Bismarck's treatment of 
them were before the American Congress, Mr. Cox, the veteran 
member from New York, recognized Jewish merit in the fol- 
lowing memorable words : 

"This is not merely a matter of dignity or comity between 
nations. It is a matter of much higher concern. This manly man, 
Herr Lasker, was a type of a great class. He was a friend of 
labor. He was its interpreter and prophet, its friend and ad- 
viser in a realm where the word of the Kaiser was law, and lib- 
erty was suppressed by penalty and force. He was the repre- 
sentative of democracy in the largest sense of that term. He 
was an orator and a splendid type of the great race that has 
come down to us from the 'chosen people' in earlier times. The 
tribute paid to his memory was also a tribute to the race from 
which he sprung — a race whose history runs back into the dawn 
of time. To that race we owe our entire system of ethics and 
the preservation of the foundation of religion. Amid centuries 
of glorious nationality, and through long ages of intolerance and 
most cruel persecution, Hebrew virtue, pride and courage re- 
main untarnished by the hand of time. In everything that broad- 
ens civilization, Hebrew genius, intellect, research and learning 
stand forth pre-eminent. 

"What a race has been stricken by the death of this dis- 
tinguished German and Hebrew? I say it is only a part of the 
history of persecutions which in this day of the nineteenth cen- 
tury are a humiliation and not to be tolerated in this country. 
In the Middle Ages one nation alone sacrificed six hundred 
thousand Jews. They were the flower of science, the devotees 
of literature, skilled in art, and enthusiastic in poetry. They were 
men of industry, enterprise and commerce, honest, social and 
hospitable. I would not suffer for a moment that we should give 
even a possible shadow of excuse for bowing before this terrible 
specter of persecution. 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. T.'J'J 

"Twice I have called the attention of the House — on the 21st 
of May, 1880, and again on the 31st of July, 1882 — to the perse- 
cutions of the Jews in Russia. We have become used to the per- 
secutions in that country. It is a part of its barbarism. But it 
is only within the past few years that the same ruthless system 
of persecution has obtained in Germany. The time of Hebraic 
liberty will come, and I trust soon, as it has come in this and some 
countries in Europe, notably in Spain, which has invited the He- 
brew exiles of Germany to her shores. To the Hebrew race it is 
proclaimed by God Himself in Holy Writ: T will shake all the 
nations, and the desire of all the nations shall come, and I will 
fill this house with glory, said Jehovah the Lord of Hosts.' 

"It becomes us especially, who have offered an asylum to 
these stricken people, and in view of their remarkable attain- 
ments in all that civilizes and blesses, that the indirect insult to 
their race, through one of its distinguished sons, shall receive no 
mitigation by tenders of semi-sympathy to the organ of auto- 
cratic power, even where that power is concealed in the silken 
glove of an accomplished statesman. 

"If gentlemen have only noticed the signs of the times in 
Russia, in Austria, and especially in Germany — where the anti- 
Semitic movement is fomented by those very nearly connected 
with Prince Bismarck — they will see the animus of this attempt 
to humiliate us, or rather of the insult cast upon the American 
Congress over the dead body of Herr Lasker." 

I could multiply instances without limit to show the esteem in 
which the Jews as such are held. We have our class defects for 
which we all suffer, and which each individual must live down, 
but we also have class virtues for which every Jew gets credit 
until he proves himself an exception to his class. I repeat, 
that in our charities we should not confine ourselves to Jews, 
and indeed we do not. Having alleviated the wants of those near- 
est and dearest to us, we should then extend our aid to others. 
That such is our habit is proven by countless instances. Sir 
Moses Montefiore devoted his life to Jewish charity, but having 
his hands strengthened by every civilized nation in Europe he 



2/8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

was enabled to extend his sphere of usefulness.* To-day the 
world is offering tributes of joy on his centenary and is extoll- 
ing the greatest philanthropist of the age ; and yet he is recog- 
nized as having kept always prominently before him as a first 
duty the ministration to Jewish suffering: 

"This above all, — to thine ownself be true ; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 



♦Written during the year 1885, while the great philanthropist was alive. 



1 






CHAPTER XI. 

Wherein is considered the interest of society in the preservation 
of the Jews as such. 

If it be true that society at large would be benefited by th« 
extinction of the Jews as such, or by the decadence of their dis- 
tinctive manners, customs and beliefs, the arguments which I 
have employed lose all their force. It will be observed that in 
what has previously been written I have addressed myself to the 
Jews as such, from a common locus standi, and that society at 
large has not been considered in the discussion. Thus far I have 
devoted myself to inquiring the benefits that will inure to the 
Jews from the preservation of their solidarity. It remains to 
be considered how the world will be affected if the views I hold 
shall prevail and be followed by the Jews. If it were possible 
that the Jews could be benefited by pursuing a course which 
would entail a disadvantage to the general public, that disadvan- 
tage would be an irresistible and unanswerable argument 
against the pursuit of that course. Every man and every class 
of men have the inalienable right to exercise and enjoy the largest 
liberty compatible with the good order and happiness of society, 
and in correlation society has the inalienable right to abridge the 
liberties of individuals or classes to the extent required by the 
good order and happiness of society. Upon these correlative 
rights are founded the whole structure of political and social gov- 
ernment. Whenever either right is infringed, the equipoise is 
disturbed, the structure is in danger of downfall. 

It is easy to formulate this rule, but none is so difficult to 
apply. The adjustment of these rights depends upon human 
minds and hearts, and the inherent fallibility of both is exhibited 
in their work. The application of the rule to the question under 
consideration is fraught with great difficulty. Theorists and vis- 
ionaries may content themselves with the argument that if the 
279 



280 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Jews be sincere in their manners, customs and beliefs, any abridg- 
ment thereof would be intolerant, and, as intolerance is wrong, 
the Jews have a right to exercise their manners, practice their 
customs and employ their belief. But this argument begs the 
question by assuming that intolerance is a wrong. Intolerance 
is not always wrong — for wrong may be what is not tolerated, 
and it is unquestionably a virtue to be intolerant of what is not 
right. Truth is intolerant of error ; virtue of evil, and against 
such intolerance nothing can be urged, though the error or evil 
be practiced with never so much sincerity. It is commonly be- 
lieved that our government is founded in a large degree upon 
the principle of universal tolerance, and this fancied element 
of our institutions is extolled as one of its most attractive 
features. 

This belief is an erroneous one. I am aware that the founders 
of our Government, warmed by the French Revolution and heated 
by our own, delivered themselves of many loose expressions, 
even in our laws and public documents, that gave color to the idea 
that this is a country of universal tolerance, but a moment's re- 
flection will demonstrate that the idea is false and unfounded. 
The experience of the world shows that in the struggle between 
the rights of individuals and the rights of society as represented 
by governments, the latter always prevailed, and to guard in a 
measure against a recurrence of that evil, the principle was in- 
grafted upon our Constitution, that not only should individuals 
be unrestrained except as required by the public good, but that 
in considering the propriety or expediency of restriction every 
doubt should be in favor of the individual. This is written every- 
where between and on the lines, and this is the extent to which 
we have traveled toward universal tolerance. To have gone fur- 
ther would have exceeded the bounds of reason. 

Freedom of conscience is a right which is enjoyed inde- 
pendent of governmental license, and which is practiced in spite 
of governmental inhibition. Torquemada himself, with all the 
machinery of the inquisition, and backed by all the power of 
Castile and Arragon could not prevent the weakest and poorest 
Jew in Spain from denying Christ in his heart. The utmost that 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 28 1 

can be done by power is to prevent the promulgation of beliefs, 
and the practice of obnoxious forms of religion or inhibited man- 
ners and customs. This is the extent of human power, and to 
that extent it may be exercised whenever its exercise is demanded 
by consideration of the greatest good to all and the least pressure 
upon any of the members of society. 

As a rule, the power has been employed to oppress individuals 
and classes, rather than to protect society. It is abused oftener 
than legitimately exercised, but it exists none the less. Gun- 
powder has perhaps done more harm than good, but its well rec- 
ognized evidence as a physical and mechanical force is not there- 
by impaired. Such instruments are given to mankind to be used 
at their peril. When mountains are leveled by explosions to 
make highways for commerce, when sunken reefs are blasted to 
make safe passage for ships, we give thanks for the discovery 
or invention of dynamite; but when fine buildings are demol- 
ished and innocent lives destroyed by the same agency, we are 
apt to consider it a curse rather than a blessing. Our maledic- 
tions, however, should be directed to those who misuse the power, 
rather than to the power itself, and we should address ourselves 
to protecting ourselves against the misuse rather than against 
the thing which is misused. Dynamite, without evil men, would 
be an unmixed blessing, but evil men, even without dynamite, 
will always be a curse. To drop the metaphor and return to our 
subject proper, I would say that we should not and may not decry 
intolerance any more than we should bewail the invention of dy- 
namite, for if intolerance be always directed against evil it would 
be an unmixed blessing. But who shall decide when the power 
should be exercised? 

The repository of a power that is not restrained by a higher 
must, in the nature of things, exercise that power in its own dis- 
cretion and at its own peril. Every government is in its internal 
affairs sovereign. Society is sovereign in its own sphere. So- 
ciety must always judge what it will tolerate and what it will not 
endure. For an error it is responsible to posterity and to God. 
To limit the liberties of others is a dangerous exercise of power, 
and one fraught with grave responsibility, and, as society is al- 



282 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

ways stronger than individuals, the exercise may be delayed with- 
out danger, and should be avoided except in cases where no doubt 
exists as to the propriety thereof. But when no doubt exists and 
the institution to be suppressed is unquestionably fraught with 
great danger to the well-being and safety of society, no maudlin 
sentiment can or should interfere. 

To illustrate: suppose that a religious sect should spring up 
in the United States whose exercises required the sacrifice of 
human life (a crime that ignorant fanatics attribute to the Jews), 
and suppose that, in the practice of this religion in all sincerity, 
human beings were slain; does any one maintain that such things 
should be permitted in deference to a visionary idea that to pro- 
hibit it would abridge the freedom of conscience? 

Society, like individuals, may and must protect itself. We 
have laws against polygamy which punish it as a crime, although 
practiced in the name of religion ; and we have faws under which 
we can segregate and even banish lepers and other infected per- 
sons whose presence in the country is dangerous to the public. 
We are intolerant of personal liberty in a thousand ways, and all 
upon the principle that the good of the whole is better than the 
good of any part, and that every man is presumed to surrender 
to society, in return for its benefits, so much of his natural rights 
as the well-being and safety of society requires. Every man is 
master of himself and his property, but subject always to the limi- 
tation that the control of both must not interfere with the public 
weal. The old maxim of the law embodies the principle : Sic tuo 
utere ut alienum non laedas, "so use what is thine as not to injure 
what belongs to others." 

To guard against misapprehension, I repeat that while the 
power to suppress exists and the repository of that power must 
judge when it shall be exercised, that repository exercises the 
power at his peril. It is responsible to God above all for its acts. 
He invests all men with the power, but none with the right to 
do wrong. If I be correct in my reasoning, it follows indis- 
putably that society may frown upon Judaism and suppress Jew- 
ish institutions, manners and customs, if these institutions, man- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 283 

tiers and customs do not consist with the general good, or, to be 
more accurate, if they endanger the general welfare. 

If, therefore, any one be sincerely intolerant of the Jews, let 
us not regard him as perversely violating a great principle, but 
rather as one wko is honestly misapplying it. Let us strive to 
show that there exists no occasion for this intolerance against us, 
instead of denying the right of its exercise at all. To do other- 
wise is to be intolerant ourselves — a fault not the least prominent, 
alas ! that may be laid at our doors. I am firmly impressed with 
the conviction that there exists a strong prejudice against us; 
that to a large extent it is honest; that to some extent it is pro- 
voked by ourselves, but that altogether it is unwarranted. I be- 
lieve that the world would be the greater loser by the extinction 
of the Jews, and in the succeeding pages I shall endeavor to show 
as briefly and as dispassionately as I can why I would regard it as 
a universal calamity to wipe out that great people in whose an- 
nals mixed with all their faults are to be found the highest ex- 
amples of all that is noble and sublime in man. 

"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ; be- 
cause thou hast obeyed my voice." (Genesis xxii. 18.) 

If I shall be able to show that most of the faults laid at the 
door of the Jews are common to all men and are not distinctly 
Jewish faults ; if I shall further show that their distinctive faults 
are mainly due to enforced conditions of life and protracted per- 
secutions ; if I shall show that no other people under similar cir- 
cumstances resisted temptations so well, and preserved virtues 
so long ; if I shall further show that in the midst of temptations to 
evil, they not only resisted evil, but developed positive virtues 
and great intellectual power ; and if I shall be able finally to show 
that the voluntary tenets and practices of the Jews are responsible 
for the good that is in the Jew, and not chargeable with the evil, 
then I take it the world is better off for the existence and preser- 
vation of the Jews as such. Let us discuss the premises in order 
to support the conclusion. 

Character is a conglomerate. It is made up of inheritance, 
education, association and surrounding circumstances. An indi- 
vidual who is born of worthy ancestors, who is properly edu- 



284 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

cated, who mingles with unexceptionable associates, and is sur- 
rounded only by ennobling influences, rises to the fullest stature 
of moral manhood. There may be an occasional exception; by 
a miracle of God the sun once stood still. But if any of the afore- 
said elements of character be omitted, and in their stead be 
brought a factor of evil, the result depends upon the relative 
strength and endurance of the contending elements of good and 
evil. 

Thus we see not infrequently the offspring of noble parents 
disgrace the patronymic by reason of evil associations or im- 
proper education; while on the other hand, from the lowest 
origin spring the grandest heroes. These seeming anomalies 
are but examples of a great law of human development. The 
most hardened criminals have been reclaimed by proper influ- 
ences ; the loftiest natures have been degraded by the temptation 
that assailed their weakest point. None may cease so far to be 
human as to retain no spark of the Divine. None may rise so 
far toward the angels as to retain no taint of the brute. 

Goethe wrote somewhere, I think in his "Wahrheit und 
Dichtung," that no man had ever had all the good eliminated 
from his nature. Walpole held that every man had his price. 
Both were right. There is something divine in man that corrod- 
ing influences can not destroy, and there is something brutal in 
him that subjects him to temptation, which, if it fits his weak- 
ness, will cause his fall. Whatever be the native qualities of a 
man or a people they will have their complexion altered more 
or less by influences brought to bear thereon for good or evil. 
The character that is susceptible of the highest improvement in 
response to the least influence, and that is proof against degrada- 
tion for the longest period and through the most numerous and 
trying temptations, is the most sterling. If it can be analyzed 
and understood, it should be emulated and preserved. 

Nothing is so degrading as contumely. Self-respect is the 
sheet-anchor of personal honor, and the respect of others is the 
vital principle of self-respect. It matters not if the contempt 
and contumely to which one is subjected be deserved or not, if it 
be exhibited toward a man it causes him to shrink in sensitive- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 285 

ness from the world's gaze, it engenders his indignation and 
hatred, it breeds a spirit of vengeance, and finally he broods 
until vengeance is achieved through crime, or peace is secured 
in a desperate and ignoble indifference. How full is life of 
illustrations to this rule. Every prison is full of creatures noble 
once, but driven by the disgrace of the first fault to the madness 
of professional crime, or reckless indifference to disgrace. When 
from a prison career — where the surroundings are reeking with 
crime, corruption and temptation — a man emerges with few 
faults and many virtues, he has demonstrated a heroic and manly 
character that merits all praise. 

After the battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans took 
possession of England. They found in the Saxons the sturdiest 
and most liberty-loving and incorruptible people of Europe, and 
yet ere long the influence of power and wealth, persecution and 
bribery overcame the Saxon purity and ingrafted upon the parent 
tree a Norman scion that has borne most of the English fruit. 
History is full of examples to prove how easy it is to corrupt a 
people and undermine their manhood. 

It records radical changes in the character and constitution 
of every nation, and but few in the march of two thousand 
years have escaped utter destruction. 

"Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? 
********* 

their shores obey 
The stranger, slave or savage; their decay 
Has dried up realms to deserts." 

The influences that have brought about the decadence of so 
many mighty empires are the temptations and pressures to which 
they have been subjected. As a rule, human conduct is governed 
by the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. By these 
means the virtues of men and of peoples have been overcome 
since the first fall. Miraculous almost is the escape of him who 
is driven to evil by fear or tempted by rewards. 

The Jews since the dawn of the Christian era have been 



286 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

subjected to the degrading influence of the world's contumely, 
that fruitful source of desperate corruption and shameless brut- 
ishness. They have, moreover, been impelled by the fear of per- 
secution and the hope of reward to forsake their creed, to abjure 
their traditions, and surrender their individuality. 

It has been a mighty battle that has been waged for nearly a 
thousand years. There has been ranged on one side the sneers 
and the power of the world, against a few isolated creatures with 
no country, no system of laws other than those of religion, no or- 
ganization, no vernacular — with nothing to sustain them but only 
the creed that God himself taught them, and the traditions and 
customs that came down to them as a sacred trust from those 
who were admitted even into the Divine Presence. From such a 
struggle, not yet ended, the Jews, though victorious, have not 
come out unscathed. 

In many instances the practice of religion has been with 
them the strict observance of rites and ceremonies and the utter 
disregard of morality, which is the essence of the religion. 
Driven from the ordinary walks of life, they have become money- 
lenders par excellence, and being forced even in this vocation to 
duplicity and chicanery for defensive purposes, these evils have, 
in a large measure, become a part of their character. Compelled 
to be hypocrites, hypocrisy has entered into their composition, 
and being denied the benefit of the laws of even natural rights, 
they have come to look upon Gentiles as enemies whom it is law- 
ful to spoil. Falsehood, deceit, hypocrisy, dishonesty, ignorance, 
uncleanliness, boorishness, may all be laid at their door. They 
have become and have been false, deceitful, hypocritical, because 
the world forced them thereto either by degrading or oppressing 
them; they have become and have been dishonest because by 
dishonesty they lost no position, nor by integrity could they gain 
any. 

They have been and have become ignorant at times because 
education was denied them in the ordinary course, and if stealthily 
acquired, received no recognition. They have been and remain 
uncleanly and boorish in some countries because they have been 
driven from general society and denied any of their own. What 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 287 

people similarly situated could have escaped the faults that are 
found among the Jews ? What people, under the most favorable 
circumstances and conditions, is free from them? Are not these 
faults common to all, and are they not the rule rather than the 
exception with the most highly favored among the nations of 
the globe ? The municipal laws of every modern civilized people 
are chiefly directed to the punishment of crimes among which 
stand prominently perjury and theft. Deceit and falsehood are 
the fruitful sources from which nearly all of modern litigation 
springs. It requires no search to find all of these faults among 
the most cultured and freest peoples of the earth — and Diogenes 
might still hunt with his' lantern for honest men. With all the 
appliances of modern science pestilence has not been subdued, 
and the filth prevailing among the people at large is the greatest 
promoter of these plagues. The Jews usually escape, for, despite 
the charge of uncleanness made against them, they are to such an 
extent superior in this respect to the Gentiles that the plagues 
seem to pass them over now as it did in Egypt centuries upon 
centuries ago. 

There is but little that is characteristic of the Jew in the faults 
of the Jews. They have weaknesses like other men, they sin 
like other men. But the Jew is everywhere prominent as an 
object of comment, and the development of his shortcomings 
gives rise to more discussion and makes a deeper impression than 
that of other men. It is the tendency of the human mind to 
generalize. I have already shown how prone we are to adopt 
general rules to explain particular phenomena. The Jew being a 
prominent object of attention, the superficial observer (who is 
largely in the majority) is apt to notice particularly the failings 
of such as he knows, and to generalize therefrom the want of 
virtue among the Jews as a class. Nothing could be shallower. 

If it were true that Jews are more corrupt than other men, 
the fact would easily be explained by their history, and thus 
relieve the Jewish religion, customs and traditions of the re- 
sponsibility therefor. A man is not wicked because he is a Jew, 
but in spite of it. But it is not true that they are worse than 
other men in the same walks of life. The Jewish merchant, law- 



288 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

yer, doctor, artisan or laborer is in all respects the peer of the 
members of the same occupations — in many respects he is facile 
princeps. 

I have admitted much more as chargeable against the Jews 
than can be established by resort to history. I have done so be- 
cause I am arguing to convince others, not to please myself, and 
my purpose will be best accomplished by the course I have pur- 
sued. 

The intelligent student of history and of men will require no 
argument to explain a state of facts that he knows does not exist 
even though I admit it; the prejudiced and ignorant would not 
believe a denial that they will not verify, but they may yield to 
an argument that they can not refute and which destroys the 
force of that state of facts even though it existed. 

There is nothing in the Jewish religion, customs or traditions 
that should breed wickedness or corruption. The traditions relate 
to deeds of heroism and courage, sublime resignation and charity, 
self-sacrifice, martyrdom and faith. The Jewish customs and 
practices are simple, healthful and pure; they are nearly all 
founded on the Mosaic laws, which modern science approves as 
the most wonderful code of sanitary and domestic regulation ever 
formulated. The Jewish religion teaches that the greatest piety 
is morality. 

On the contrary, the traditions, customs, practices and religion 
of this people have bred heroes and statesmen, savants and poets, 
philanthropists and Samaritans, to such an extent that though 
composing but a small fraction of the earth's population, the 
Jews have given to nearly every generation an immortal name, 
and have shaped the destiny of nearly every government under 
the sun since and before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Jew. 

Let us glance briefly at the chronology of the Jews since the 
Christian era and note the great names that serve as landmarks 
in modern Jewish history. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Wherein is Given a Brief Resume of Jewish History since the 
Christian Era. 

For eight hundred years after the birth of Christ the Jews 
were the objects Of persecution at the hands of Pagans, Chris- 
tians and Mohammedans. During the first century Caligula per- 
secuted them in Rome, Jerusalem was besieged and captured by 
Titus, the temple was destroyed and the chosen people of God 
driven from the holy city. The stars that shone on Galilee looked 
down upon a dispersed and desolate people. The pagan legions 
of Rome overspread the Holy Land, and the forests of Lebanon 
and Zion echoed the lamentations and shrieks of a devoted race 
hunted to the death. Peace and security were conditions remem- 
bered only as a time long since departed. In the second century 
Akiba became a martyr, and the children of Israel were forbidden 
to even enter the city of their ancient glory. In the year 530 
Justinian formulated laws against the Jews that were designed 
to work their extirpation, but, despite the engines of destruction 
brought to bear upon them, they survived and preserved their 
customs, manners, traditions, learning and religion. With the 
beginning of the ninth century opened a new era for the Jews. 
Haroun Al Rashid, in the Orient, and Charlemagne, in the West, 
fostered and encouraged the talents of the indestructible and irre- 
pressible people. They rose to eminence in commerce and litera- 
ture, and became the repositories of the wealth and the learning of 
the world. The Christian clergy became jealous of their power and 
fomented new persecutions, but it required something more than 
priestcraft to strike with success at a power so great as theirs. 
In Morocco and Spain they became the intimates of the rulers, 
and their merchant princes supplied the belligerent monarchs of 
Europe with the sinews of war. Great minds arose, and radical 
reforms were instituted among them. The Scriptures, by trans- 
lation and commentary, were brought nearer to the common 



29O LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

understanding, and among other reforms polygamy, that relic of 
Oriental barbarism, was interdicted. 

But the two hundred halcyon years were at an end when the 
institution of chivalry was enabled to spend its pent-up and ex- 
travagant enthusiasm in an effort to regain the "holy sepulchre." 
The fanaticism aroused by Peter the Hermit fell on all heretics 
alike. The Jews were spoiled of their wealth to equip crusaders, 
and their learning ceased to inspire respect among men who only 
respected physical strength. 

In France, Germany and England the oppression of Jews 
was deemed a virtue in the eyes of heaven. But the endurance 
of the Jews was not overcome. In Spain they found a refuge, 
where they could at least exist. 

Here arose, in the twelfth century, the great Judah Halievi, 
the great Aben Ezra, and the yet greater Maimonides. 

Moses Maimonides, as he is usually styled, his name being in 
fact Rabbenu Mosheh ben Maimun Haddayan, was born at 
Cordova, on March 30, 1135. He lived to be nearly seventy years 
of age. He was, without doubt, the greatest philosopher and 
scholar produced by the Jews since the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era. No contemporary or other philosopher during the 
Middle Ages, Jew or Gentile, approached him. He seems to 
have mastered every branch of learning, sacred and profane, and 
to have possesed the rare genius of giving to the world the benefit 
of his vast learning after distillation in his incomparable mind. 
As the bee sucks sweets from every flower and yields them again 
in concentrated and purified sweetness, so he gathered knowledge 
from every source and gave it forth again, improved, digested 
and made attractive. He acquired knowledge and dispensed wis- 
dom on all subjects. He wrote on theology, metaphysics, mathe- 
matics, astronomy and medicine, and even poetry was not beyond 
his versatile genius. As pure in heart as he was strong in mind, 
he led an immaculate life, and declined to profit by his sacred 
learning. Driven from Cordova by persecution, he fled to the 
East, and his talents being recognized, he was raised to the highest 
position of personal trust. Saladin, of Egypt, made him his 
own physician, which office he held at the time of his death, 






THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 20,1 

which occurred at Cairo in 1204. He wrote in Hebrew and in 
Arabic, and most of his works have come down to us. His 
Mishneh Torah, a systematic codification of the Jewish law, is 
yet a text-book for Jewish theolgical students, as is his com- 
mentary on Rosh Hashanah and the Mishnah. His Moreh 
Nebuchim, or Guide to the Perplexed, is rarely read at the pres- 
ent time, but as a work of general interest to philosophers it is 
still held in high esteem. It is said that Moses Mendelssohn 
became great through his earnest study of Maimonides' Guide. 
I quote from Professor Shiller Szinessy, of Cambridge, who says, 
in a short essay on Maimonides: "To sum up in a few words 
the merits of Maimonides, we may say that, with all the disad- 
vantages of the times in which he lived, he was the greatest 
theologian and philosopher the Jews ever produced, and one of 
the greatest the world has seen to this day. As a religious and 
moral character, he is equaled only by a few, and surpassed by 
none." 

Of Ibn or Aben Ezra, Dr. Mendez de Solla writes: "Abra- 
ham Ben Meir Aben Ezra was born of a noble family at the 
beginning of the twelfth century at Toledo. He was a man of 
extensive erudition and wonderful genius, perfectly familiar alike 
with the Aristotefian philosophy and the closest interwoven fea- 
tures of rabbinical literature. Taking in consideration the age 
in which he lived he was really eminent as a commentator, gram- 
marian, philosopher, physician, astronomer and poet. In his fiery 
spirit, in the ardor of his imagination, and in his humorous vein 
he is unequaled by any of the Jewish literati. His style is pure, 
expressive and original; his sentences are elegant, sometimes 
lively and full of wit, but often so brief as to be obscure. Like 
many of his contemporaries he had a great inclination for travel- 
ing. This taste is worthy of remark as presenting a striking 
contrast to the life led by the monks and Roman Catholic clergy 
of that period. This desire of becoming personally acquainted 
with a world in which they met so much hostility is especially 
observable in Aben Ezra. The various places from which he 
dated his different works show in a literal sense that he was a 
wanderer on the earth. As a commentator on the scriptures he is 



292 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

valued without exception by all. His hymn on the soul is a 
practical development of the idea, that every night, during sleep 
the soul, released from the body, ascends to heaven to give an 
account of the work done during the day. His poetical works 
extend also to nuptial hymns, elegies, satires, and even a series 
of verses on the game of chess. He visited also Palestine and 
held converse with the learned men of Tiberias upon the Maso- 
retic text of the Bible." He died at the age of seventy. 

From the beginning of the Crusades there has been but little 
intermission in the persecution of the Jews. In 1290, Edward I. 
expelled them from England ; eight years later they were hunted 
down by Reindfleish's mob in Bavaria. In 1306 they were ex- 
pelled by Philip the Fair from France, and some years later 
were subjected to horrible outrages in Austria and Bavaria by 
the Armleder mob. In 1348 there was a general massacre of 
Jews throughout Germany. The Black Death was raging, and 
to the horrors of the plague were added those of religious perse- 
cution. How sublime indeed was the courage that, amid such 
suffering, could be true to the faith whose keynote is the mag- 
nificent invocation: Shemai Israel Adonai Elohenu Adonai 
Echod. 

It would be tedious to follow in detail the status of the Jews 
throughout the period of which I write. It is one long chapter 
of suffering and horror, throughout which shines ever resplend- 
ent the star of Jewish loyalty to the Jewish faith and traditions. 

The following, taken from an article by Dr. Julius Wellhausen. 
of Greifswald, will convey a fair idea of their condition during 
the Middle Ages : 

"Having according to the later medieval system, no rights in 
the Christian state, the Jews were tolerated only in those terri- 
tories where the sovereign in the exercise of free favor accorded 
them protection. This protection was granted them in many quar- 
ters, but never for nothing. Numerous and various taxes, which 
could be raised or changed in a perfectly arbitrary way, were ex- 
acted in exchange. But in countries where the feeling of nation- 
ality attained to a vigorous development, the spirit of toleration 
was speedily exhaustel. The Jews were expelled by the act of 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 293 

the State. England was the first kingdom in which this occurred 
(1290) ; France followed in 1395; Spain and Portugal in 1492 
and 1495. In this way it came about that the Holy Roman Em- 
pire, Germany, Italy and adjoining districts became the chief 
abode of the Jews. In the anarchy which there prevailed they 
could best maintain their separate attitude, and if they were ex- 
pelled from one locality they readily found refuge in some other. 
The emperor had indeed the right of extirpating them altogether, 
with the exception of a small number to be left as a memorial. 
But in the first place he had in various ways given up this right 
to the States of the Empire and moreover his pecuniary resources 
were so small that he could not afford to forfeit the tax, which the 
Jews as his "servi camerae" paid him for protecting their persons 
and property. In spite of many savage persecutions the Jews 
maintained their ground, especially in those parts of Germany 
where the political confusion was greatest. They even succeeded 
in maintaining a kind of autonomy by means of an arrangement, 
in virtue of which civil processes which they had against each 
other were decided by their own Rabbis in accordance with the 
law of the Talmud." 

Spain seems to have been especially a refuge for the Jews un- 
til about the close of the fourteenth century. 

Here Mr. Sen quoted at length from Sr. Mendes de Solla's 
erudite work on "Post Biblical History," and we omit these 
citations and refer the reader to that great contribution to Jewish 
lore. 

During the reign of Dom Pedro, the Cruel, Samuel Albulafia 
was Minister and Santob di Carrion the poet laureate, or rather 
Court poet. Albulafia built, at Toledo, a magnificent synagogue 
in which the Jews openly worshiped God according to the dictates 
of their own consciences. During the reign of Alphonso V. of 
Portugal, a Jew (1470), Don Isaac Abravanel, was privy coun- 
sellor to the king. Abravanel was an erudite scholar, a financier, 
statesman and philanthropist. In 1484 his prestige and power in- 
creased by his appointment as Minister of Finance to Ferdinand 
and Isabella. 

Perhaps no era in the history of Spain is so glorious and 



294 L£ N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

famous as the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Young, beauti- 
ful and popular, they united two fond hearts in marriage and 
buried in a common crown the traditional hatreds of Castile and 
Arragon. Under them Spain became a nation and rapidly rose 
to the proudest station among the great powers of the earth. 
The chivalry of Spain was world-famous. Her poets charmed 
every court in Europe, and the foundation was laid for that 
power which dominated Europe until the English defeated 
the "Invincible Armada." Under Ferdinand and Isabella, 
Spain achieved the end of the long and bloody wars that had 
been raging in Southern Spain between the Christians and 
Moors. The name of Isabella would be immortal had she done 
nothing else except devote her jewels to the explorations of 
Columbus. From her fair brow and arms she stripped her or- 
naments, 

"And took from braids of long black hair, 
The gems that gleamed like starlight there," 

to enable the adventurous Genoese to discover a new conti- 
nent.* 

But alas, the fanatical spirit of Rome overspread Spain 
like a pall of darkness. The young King and Queen, devoted 
heart and soul to mother Church, came under the domination 
of that relentless priest, Torquemada, and the Holy Inquisi- 
tion began its work. The horrors of that inquest are familiar 
to even the superficially informed. It began in 1481, and for 
eleven long years the Jews of Spain endured its terrors rather 
than forsake the vine-clad hills and sunny valleys of their be- 
loved Spain. But their patient and courageous suffering proved 
of no avail. 

Mr. Prescott, in his admirable history of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, has given a graphic description of the status of the 
Jews in Spain before and at the time of the Inquisition, and in 



*History now refutes this, and shows that a Jew furnished the money, 
as shown by Kaiserling in his work on the subject. See the Jewish En- 
cyclopedia. 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 295 

preference to any mere compilation stated in my own words I 
quote from his work. See 7th Chapter, Vol. I. of Prescott's 
Ferdinand and Isabella. 

*In the 17th Chapter of this splendid history is given an 
eloquent account of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, of 
the sufferings they endured and the great loss suffered by Spain 
by exiling the 160,000 thrifty, cultivated and wealthy Israelites. 
From that time to the present the decline of Spain has been sure 
and steady. Frederick the Great was wise in saying that no 
nation profits by persecuting the Jews. 

In 1492 occurred the three most notable events in the reign 
of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews were expelled from Spain, 
Columbus sailed for America, and Granada, the Moorish cap- 
ital, surrendered to the chivalry of Leon and Castile. 

In the fall of Granada Mohammedanism forever lost its foot- 
hold in Western Europe, and the Christianity of Rome has been 
supreme in all Spain since the day when the weak and defeated 
Moorish King rode over the hills in flight and paused to take 
his farewell glance at the towers of his famous capital. The 
spot is still known under the name of the "Last Sigh of the 
Moor" — "el ultimo Suspiro el Moro." . The Church of Rome had 
cause to rejoice over the year 1492. The hated Moslem and 
the despised Jew were driven from the proudest of the Christian 
nations. 

On August 2, 1492, by royal edict, the Jews were exiled from 
Spain. On the day following Columbus sailed on his perilous 
voyage. Truly, it may be said they "builded better than they 
knew." Little was it dreamed on that sweltering day when the 
cheers of Spaniards gave god-speed to the departing mariners, 
that a country would be discovered by them wherein equal rights 
would be offered to the children of those despised Jews who were 
sadly leaving the sunny slopes of Spain. 

"There is a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them as we will." 

Singularly enough, among those whom Columbus took with 
him on his perilous voyage was one Louis de Torres, an Israelite 



296 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

who had ostensibly embraced Christianity under the persuasive 
influence of the Inquisition. Columbus took him because of his 
great familiarity with oriental languages, which it was supposed 
would come into requisition by the discovery of the Eastern shores 
of Asia. Torres must have enjoyed the confidence of his com- 
mander, for when Columbus, mistaking Cuba for Asia, desired 
to send messages to the great Khan, he entrusted this danger- 
ous and delicate mission to Torres and one Jerez. It was on this 
journey that tobacco was first discovered by any European (see 
Irving's Life of Columbus, Chapters 3 and 4). 

The great wealth and learning of the Jews always insured 
them a welcome in one country when expelled from another. 
When driven from Spain they fled to Holland, Portugal and 
Germany, and when driven from these countries they fled to oth- 
ers, great numbers flocking to Turkey, where they rose to great 
prosperity. 

The Reformation distracted the attention of the Christians 
from the Jews. The Church had its hands full with Luther and 
Calvin, and the Reformers were driven to sore straits themselves. 
The Reformed Christians and' the Jews were like the tiger and 
the deer when driven to an island by a flood. A common mis- 
fortune insured peace. Thus we find Luther early in the Refor- 
mation defending the Jews ; two score years later, when he felt 
his ground to be safer, he turned upon them in fierce assault. 
The flood had subsided, and the deer was lawful prey. 

The sixteenth century added many names to the Jewish pan- 
theon. In all of Europe the Jews flourished with varying, but 
rather brighter fortunes. During this time flourished Loans, 
Eliah Levita. Caro, Rossi, Medigo, Modena, Mordecai, Meisel, 
Gans, the astronomer, Rabbi Loew and many others. The seven- 
teenth century was one of constantly varying fortunes. The Jews 
were expelled from Frankfort in 1614; practically so from Po- 
land in 1628; from Vienna in 1670. But they were admitted to 
Germany from Poland in 1628 ; they settled in Brazil in 1642 
and in New York and New England in 1654. In 1655 Manasseh 
ben Israel, the author of a "Defense of the Jews," pleaded with 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 297 

Cromwell for the admission of his people into Merry England, 
and eleven years later the Israelites were allowed to return. 

The Spanish and Portuguese refugees of the previous century 
in large numbers fled to Amsterdam, where soon arose a powerful, 
wealthy and learned colony of Jews. They enjoyed much respect 
from the honest burghers of the Dutch capital, and furnished 
many famous names to the history of Holland. Notable among 
these are DePinto, Suasso and M*elo, the philanthropists; Saul 
Morteira, the great rabbi, and Uriel Acosta and Baruch Spinoza, 
the skeptics. To Berthold Auerbach, another Jew, we are in- 
debted for a magnificent picture of the times and the progress 
of Jewish thought (vide his "Spinoza"). Acosta's career was a 
tragedy. His independence of thought led him to reject the 
dogmas of Rome under which he was reared. His father be- 
came a convert to Christianity under the influence of Portuguese 
persecution, but the young Uriel returned to Judaism and passed 
over to Amsterdam to enjoy the liberty of his conscience. Here 
he made assaults on the corruptions in the Jewish worship. Twice 
was he excommunicated, and twice restored to the Jewish fold. 
His personal sufferings were permitted to color his views on re- 
ligion, and the opposition to his assault on mere forms of the 
religion drove him to disbelieve the essence thereof. He lacked 
consistency and enduring courage, and, according to Jewish le- 
gends, after recanting, he died by his own hand. He left several 
able theological works. 

Spinoza possessed a great mind and a great heart. His per- 
sonality was merged in his philosophy. His own sufferings and 
privations were as naught to him. Always cherishing a warm 
love for his people, he gradually drew away from orthodox Jew- 
ish ideas. He was made a rabbi while very young, and was 
deemed a prodigy of learning and controversial talent. His pan- 
theistic philosophy is well known. His luminous mind and won- 
derful reasoning powers have gained for him the title of "father 
of modern philosophy." 

During the eighteenth century the Jews made vast progress 
toward emancipation. In 1723 they were admitted to citizenship 
in England. In America they became more numerous, and in 



298 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

1728 opened the first American synagogue in New York. Less 
than five generations have pased since then, and now every town 
of any pretensions in the United States boasts a Jewish syna- 
gogue. 

The first silk manufactory of Prussia was established by Jews 
in 1730. In 1748 the great Montesquieu, recognizing the merits 
of the Hebrews, pleaded for their emancipation, and invoked a 
spirit of tolerance for the devoted and long-suffering people. 
At the same time Lessing and Gellert, in Germany, discarded and 
repudiated the fashionable prejudice against Jews, and wrote in 
their behalf. Among his works nothing reflects so much glory 
upon the name of Lessing as "Die Juden" and "Nathan Der 
Weise." 

His efforts in behalf of the Jews are directly due to the influ- 
ence of the great Hebrew luminary of the century, Moses Men- 
delssohn, who was Lessing's great friend, and the prototype of 
Nathan the Wise. 

Moses Mendelssohn was born on September 6, 1729, at Des- 
sau. His father was a "transcriber of the law," that is to say a 
professional copyist of Hebrew manuscripts. At the early age of 
three years Moses was taught the wise sayings of the Talmud. He 
was educated by the pious and learned Rabbi Frankel, with whom 
he subsequently ■ went to Berlin. His pure life and great talents 
soon brought him into notice. He became the intimate of Les- 
sing and Gellert, and one of the leaders of German philosophical 
thought. In a competition he took the prize even over the great 
Kant, who was one of his rivals. His successful contribution is 
still famous and much studied. (Ueber Evidens in Metaphysi- 
chen Wissenschaften.) It would be tedious to enumerate his 
works and influence. Through him a spirit of tolerance toward 
the Jews was generated in Germany, which received much 
strength from the liberal authors who preceded the French Revo- 
lution. It is said of Mendelssohn that "every visitor to Berlin, 
Jew or Gentile, sought to make his acquaintance at a kind of 
Salon which he held in the afternoons." Yet Frederick the Great 
refused him election to the Berlin Academy. This tyrant is said to 
have remarked that "no government ever prospered by oppress- 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 299 

ing the Jews," but he yielded, nevertheless, to prejudice, and ex- 
cluded from the Academy the author of "Phsedo." The grandson 
of Moses Mendelssohn, Felix, is known as one of the greatest 
musical authors of the world. 

With Mendelssohn begins properly the end of mediaeval and 
the opening of the modern history of the Jews. I have not under- 
taken even to give an outline of the Jews of the Middle Ages, be- 
cause neither the limits nor design of this article will permit of 
any historical excursions. Much more am I precluded from under- 
taking any extended notice of modern. Jewish development. Great 
names crowd, one so fast after the other, that I cannot pause even 
to mention them. A few of them (and only a few will I set down 
here) will serve to show how wonderful indeed has been the 
achievement of the Jews despite the degrading influence of per- 
secutions during the dark ages. Of the effect thereof I make the 
following quotation from an article by Israel Davis : "The perse- 
cutions of the Middle Ages had produced their natural effect. Cut 
off from their fellow-citizens, excluded by oppressive laws from 
all trades except that of peddling in old clothes, and even from 
buying certain classes of these ; specially taxed, confined to Ghet- 
tos and Judengassen, strictly prohibited from entering some 
towns, limited in numbers in others; forbidden to marry except 
under restrictions designed to check the growth of the Jewish 
population; disabled from enjoying Christian servants, or being 
members of trade guilds, the Jews seemed by their abject condi- 
tion to deserve the evils which were its cause." 

Reflect for a moment on such a condition as is above por- 
trayed being the fate of a people for centuries, and then ask your- 
selves what must be the native virtues of that people if they 
emerge with honor and furnish more heroes in proportion to num- 
bers than any other people, oppressed or free. Consider that Wes- 
sely, Lowe, Marcus Herz, Heine, Borne, Gans the jurist, Rahel, 
Neander the historian, Jonas and Zacharias Frankel, Hildeshei- 
mer, Jost, Zunz, Rapaport, Geiger, Graetz, Furst, Steinschneider, 
Herxheimer, Herzfeld, Phillippson, Lehman, are the names of 
Jews. Berthold Auerbach, whose hand was upon the heartstrings 
of the German people, was a Jew ; Heinrich Heine, that remark- 



300 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

able character in philosophy and resplendent light in poetry, was 
a Jew ; Edward Lasker, the peer of Bismarck in politics, and his 
superior in all other respects, was a Jew; Rubenstein and Joa- 
chim in music, Traube in medicine, Lazarus in psychology, Ben- 
fey and Bernays and Wehl in philology, are the names of Jews. 
What a magnificent galaxy they all make, and yet they are all 
taken from Germany only and within an hundred years ! 

Notwithstanding the multitude of great names added to Ger- 
man history by her Jewish subjects, the Jews have been consis- 
tently and persistently persecuted by the German people and gov- 
ernment. It was not until 1803 that the infamous Leibzoll was 
finally abolished in Germany. This was a tax imposed specially 
on Jews whenever they crossed the boundaries of a city or petty 
State. In 1812 they were recognized as citizens, but after the war 
of liberation, in which they distinguished themselves, they were 
subjected to new restrictions, or a revival of those that had fallen 
into desuetude. During the Liberal movement, in 1848, their 
liberties were enlarged, but it was not until the establishment of 
the German Empire (1871) that civil and political equality was 
accorded to the Jews. Even this did not stifle the spirit of intol- 
erance. A few years later Stoecker, the preacher of the Emperor, 
became the head of what is called the "Anti-Semitic" movement. 
Leagues had been formed throughout the Empire to ostracize the 
Jews and otherwise persecute them. That the movement was not 
distasteful to the Iron Chancellor (Bismarck), goes without say- 
ing. The court preacher would not have dared to have identified 
himself with the movement save with the sanction of the ruling 
genius of Germany. It was only in deference to the outraged pub- 
lic opinion abroad that the Government finally interfered to pre- 
vent such outrages as resulted in the destruction of the synagogue 
at New Stettin. 

The avowed grievance on the anti-Semitic leagues is the prom- 
inence of the Jews in science, literature, art and commerce. It 
is alleged against them that they monopolize the commerce of Ger- 
many and control her finances. What an argument for persecu- 
tion ! What an apology for crime ! What a commentary on Ger- 
man civilization ! The Jews of the German Empire constitute 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 301 

only one per cent of the population ; they have just emerged from 
centuries of degradation and persecution; only emancipated in 
1871 and yet the most powerful nation on the continent, and one 
that boasts the highest order of thought, education and develop- 
ment, encourages leagues to combat them! Ninety-nine men 
uniting against one! 

When Napoleon plowed the fields of Germany with the hoofs 
of his war horses and made them fertile with German blood and 
bones, the Jews were favored by the panic-stricken Teutons. 
Their talents, their treasure and their valor were needed and all 
were given with alacrity. When the invaders were driven back 
the Jews were placed under a cloud again — and today when Ger- 
many dominates Europe, the Government smiles at assaults on the 
people that gave Lasker to lead the fight for constitutional liberty. 
Wonderful indeed is the people that in a nation of fifty odd mill- 
ions can and does furnish the leaders in science, politics, literature, 
art and commerce out of a pitiful one per centum of the whole 
population. * 

Let us now glance for a moment at the progress of the Jews 
in France. It is to be observed that the Jews are a patriotic peo- 
ple. Under whatever government they exist, they are as a rule 
loyal to the "powers that be," and wherever they have been ac- 
corded liberty their devotion Has known no bounds. The favorite 
countries of the Jews are France and the United States. 

In 1790 Mirabeau and St. Etienne championed the claims of 
the Jews for equal rights in France, and in 1791 they were admit- 
ted to full citizenship by act of Assembly, which was confirmed in 
the Constitution of 1795. The Jews testified their grateful appre- 
ciation of the privileges thus extended, by pouring out their blood 
and contributing their wealth in the fearful conflicts in which 
France became engaged. 

In 1807 the great Napoleon convoked the celebrated Sanhedrin 
to formulate a code of laws for his Jewish subjects. It was a 
great event for the Jews, and yet greater for France. I shall not 
pause to analvze the work of the Sanhedrin. It is matter of his- 
tory. The liberties accorded by Napoleon to the Jews, and which 
have been continued to this day, completely eliminated the Jewish 



-J02 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

question from French politics. The Jews became prime factors of 
French civilization, but no longer vexed the statecraft of the gov- 
ernment. France does not offer as many prominent Jewish names 
as Germany. Separate development has not been stimulated in 
France by political restrictions as it has been in Germany. The 
general character of the French Jews is higher, however, than 
that of German Jews. They are freer from the hereditary faults, 
and more pronounced and consistent in the display of hereditary 
virtues. They are more pious, yet freer from cant ; they are more 
cultured, yet less disposed to the skepticism so common among en- 
lightened Germans. 

Among the great French Jews of the country I will only men- 
tion Adolph Cremieux, the statesmen Fould and Goudchaux, the 
savants, Jules Oppert and Halevy, Meyerbeer, the composer, the 
philanthropist Baron Hirsch, and the distinguished members of the 
French branch of the Rothschild family. 

As already stated, the Jews were readmitted to England in the 
time of Cromwell. In 1658 they were first permitted to bury a 
Jewish corpse in a licensed Jewish cemetery. As late as 1845 ^ 
was doubted if even English-bom Jews could legally hold lands 
in England. In 1754 popular clamor succeeded in effecting the re- 
peal of Mr. Pelham's Jewish naturalization act, which had passed 
the year previous. The statute de Judaism, which prescribed a 
particular garb for the Jews, was only repealed in 1846, but it was 
then a dead letter, and had been for two centuries. By the re- 
form act of 1832, the right of suffrage was extended to the Jews. 
The progress toward full recognition, it will be observed, was ex- 
ceedingly slow. . Macaulay and Lord Russell, great as was their 
influence, fought for long years in vain to fully emancipate the 
Jews. Baron Lionel de Rothschild was five times returned to 
Parliament by the city of London, and was eleven years a mem- 
ber before he was allowed to take an oath omitting the words "on 
the true faith of a Christian." In 1858 this insuperable obstacle 
was removed. Seven years before Salomons took his seat, having 
omitted the words. He was, however, fined and obliged to retire 
by decree of the Exchequer Court. Until 1828 the number of Jew- 
ish brokers in London was limited to twelve. Sir D. Salomons, 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 303 

the first Jewish Sheriff of London, could not qualify until by a 
special act passed by Lord Campbell, an oath was prescribed which 
he could take. Two years later (1837) Sir Moses Montefiore was 
elected. The latter was an alderman for ten years before he 
could qualify, Lord Syndhurst's act (1845) enabling him to do so. 

English history boasts many great Jewish names. In theology 
we have in the latter part of the seventeenth century Jacob Aben- 
dano and David Meto; in mathematics, Sylvester, Sarmento and 
Gompertz, both of the latter being fellows of the Royal Society. 
Among linguists there are Goldstucker, Zedner and Deutsch; 
among barristers, Goldsmid and Judah P. Benjamin, who, how- 
ever, more properly belongs to the United States. In literature, 
da Costa, who in 1769 — the date of his death — was Secretary and 
librarian of the Royal Society; Isaac Disraeli, Benj. Disraeli, Da- 
vid Ricardo, Lopez and many others. In politics, Beaconsfield, 
Salomons, Montefiore and Rothschild and a long list of others 
who are philanthropists as well. In all other countries of the globe 
we find great men who are Jews, in all departments of life. In 
the United States they fill positions of prominence and trust in all 
the spheres of private and public life. Among our leading states- 
men, orators, lawyers, physicians, theologians, artists, musicians, 
actors, capitalists, financiers and merchants is to be found the ir- 
repressible Jew. 

On the 1 6th of January, 1825, there was founded in Charles- 
ton, S. C, the Reformed Society of Israelites. Through the kind- 
ness of my friend, Mr. Abraham C. Labatt, one of the original 
signers of the Constitution of that Society, I have been permitted 
to read the Constitution of the Society and the ritual adopted by 
it. The originators were men of marked intelligence, courage 
and purity of purpose, as is evident from their work. They 
breasted the storms of indignation that grew out of their innova- 
tions, and bravely continued the work which was perhaps the 
foundation of the American reform movement. I must leave to 
some historian of the Jewish Church the work of analyzing the 
history and progress of the Society. I merely mention it to show 
that in a free country enlightened Jews, relieved from the pres- 
sure of persecution, directed their energies to reform. This move- 



304 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

ment, however, had no radical tendencies. It did not address itself 
to doctrines, but merely to ceremonies. It was at a later date and 
by a different class of men, that innovations were made upon the 
body as well as the habiliments of Judaism. 

The reform movement, whether well or ill-advised as a policy, 
unquestionably grew out of the purest motives. The Jew has in 
every age been distinguished for untiring and restless energy. 
Amidst persecution he had no time for reform. All his strength 
and resources were husbanded to meet and ward off hostile as- 
saults from without. In America, however, he was almost entire- 
ly free from persecution, and the innate powers of the Jew were 
directed to self-improvement. As a monarch at the end of for- 
eign wars directs his attention to internal improvement and re- 
form, so the Jews in America, for the first time in centuries at 
peace, turned their eyes inward. Unfortunately what was con- 
ceived in such a laudable spirit, has been carried to most unwar- 
ranted limits. It would be surprising indeed if they did not go to 
extremes. Sudden freedom is always characterized bv excesses, 
but the conservatism and natural balance of the Jewish mind is 
asserting itself, and ere long there will be evolved a symmetrical, 
logical and attractive ritual and system of worship. Recent de- 
velopments in the United States give unmistakable color to this 
prediction. The people have asserted themselves and the leaders 
have heard from them in unmistakable terms. When at Pitts- 
burg in i88q the Rabbis issued the celebrated Delphic oracle en- 
titled the "Postulates of Reason" — and at the same time paved the 
way for the abolition of the holy Jewish Sabbath and the covenant 
of Abraham, a storm arose which demonstrated a fact which had 
been overlooked. Beneath the apparent indifference of the Ameri- 
can Jews there slumbered a sfreat and indestructible love for the 
ancient creed. The new generation clung to it not onlv for its 
treat truths and beauties, b"t also bec'^e of <ts <Teat antinitity; 
and the elders under the influence of their children's enthusiasm, 
felt the old earnestness quicken in their hearts. Thev reminded 
themselves or were reminded that it is not srood "to cast stones in 
the well from which thev had drunk." and they hastened with re- 
newed devotion to the long-neglected shrines.. A new impetus 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 305 

has been given to Judaism in America by the collapse of radical- 
ism in 1886, and it would require a prophet to foresee the great- 
ness of the Jews in the land of liberty. It may aid the reader in 
speculating upon that future to be informed of a few of the 
achievements of the Jews in the United States up to the present 
time. They have not been few or unimportant, for the heat of 
radicalism and the cold of indifference in religious matters have 
been alike impotent to affect the innate charity of the Jews. 
Throughout all ages and all manner of calamity they have illus- 
trated by their lives the sweet gospel of Moses : "Love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." (19 Leviticus, 34.) 

I have been unable to find any comprehensive statistics con- 
cerning the American Jews, but from the meagre data available 
I have been able to collate a number of interesting facts, which if 
they be not strictly accurate, may be safely received as within, 
rather than beyond the truth. 

There are four great charitable fraternities in the United 
States, viz. : the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, with an ag- 
gregate of nearly 25,000 members ; the Free Sons of Israel, with 
nearly 12,000 members; the Improved Free Sons of Israel, with 
about 3,300 members, and the Kesher Shel Barzel (Iron Link), 
with over 9,000 members. All of these great organizations are 
founded and conducted upon philanthropic principles. From offi- 
cial reports I find the B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant), aside 
from and exclusive of endowment and sick benefits, bestows an- 
nually almost $150,000.00 or $6.00 per capita in charity. The av- 
erage in District No. 7, composed of Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, 
Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisana and Texas, is over $9.00 per cap- 
ita, and exceeds by far the average in any other district. The ag- 
gregate membership of the other three orders named is about 
25,000, and if we credit them with an average per capita char- 
ity of $4.00 per annum, we have a quarter of a million dollars con- 
tributed by the fraternities alone. But notwithstanding the vast 
extent and usefulness of these orders, we find in nearly every im- 
portant town where the Jews reside, a Hebrew benevolent society 
whose sphere is local. Certainly not less than $250,000.00 is an- 
nually distributed by these organizations. 



306 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

The Jews in the United States own, support and successfully 
operate a number of great charity hospitals, among which are 
Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, Jewish Hospital in Philadelphia, 
Hebrew Hospital in Baltimore, Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati and 
our own Touro Infirmary at New Orleans. 

In addition to these they own, support and successfully oper- 
ate a large number of charitable asylums, such as the Hebrew Be- 
nevolent and Orphan Asylum in New York, Foster Home and Or- 
phan Asylum in Philadelphia, B'nai B'rith Orphan Asylum in 
Cleveland, Jewish Orphan Asylum in Baltimore, Pacific Orphan 
Asylum in San Francisco, Home for Aged and Infirm at Philadel- 
phia, Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York, Familien 
Wiasen Verein in Philadelphia, Deborah Nursery and Protectory 
in New York, Sheltering Guardian Society in New York, and 
the Jewish Widows' and Orphans' Home in New Orleans. I 
have possibly omitted some of the Jewish eleemosynary institu- 
tions which are entitled to rank along with those I have men- 
tioned. 

Besides the above there are great numbers of relief, free burial, 
free fuel and free school societies in the larger cities. 

The annual cost of the conduct of these various institutions I 
have deemed it safe to place at not less than $500,000.00. 

The private and miscellaneous, but strictly Jewish charities I 
have, after careful consideration, placed at an average of $1.00 
per capita or $300,000.00. We have then a grand total of $1,800,- 
000.00 expended annually by say 300,000 Jews in strictly Jewish 
charities, an average per capita of $4.33 1-3. Estimating that 
there is an adult male to every six persons, we will find that there 
are but 50,000 male adult Jews in the United States and as the 
burden falls almost exclusively upon them, their capita aver- 
ages $26.00 per annum. But it is well known that the Jews are 
charitable to others than those of their own faith. I venture to es- 
timate their general charities at one-half of their sectarian chari- 
ties. That would swell the grand total to nearly $2,000,000.00 
per annum, or an average per capita for each male adult of $40.00. 

If the same generosity were displayed by the people at large 
the charities of the whole country would reach the enormous 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. $°7 

amount of four hundred millions per annum; a sum larger than 
the national revenues and almost equal to the value of two cotton 
crops. 

It must be remembered that in my estimates I have not in- 
cluded the sums paid out for sick or endowment benefits. These 
I consider beyond the pale of strict charity, although in many re- 
spects they may be considered as falling within it. I have also 
excluded congregational expenses. There are about three hun- 
dred congregations in the United States, being one for every 
1,000 Jews, and the annual expenditure is not less than $1,000,- 
ooo.oo, or an average of $20.00 per capita for each male adult. 

The great fraternities pay out annually to Jewish widows 
and orphans in the shape of endowments, more than $500,000. 
In the larger towns and cities there are Young Men's Hebrew As- 
sociations, Dramatic and Literary Societies, schools of various 
kinds and in fine every species of organization designed to en- 
courage science, literature and art. 

But while the Jew is sectarian in his charities and his plea- 
sures he is not so as a citizen. They belong to all political parties 
and there is no such thing as the Jewish vote. 

In this country, moreover, the Jews have ceased to be mere 
money makers. They are invading every walk of life. In law, 
medicine, journalism, art, literature, engineering; in music and 
the drama, they are to be found in great numbers and generally 
in the front rank. When we contemplate the wonderful attain- 
ments of the Jews in this country we are impelled to exclaim with 
Balaam : "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ; thy tabernacles, 
O Israel ! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the 
river side, as the trees of lign-aloes, which the Lord hath planted, 
and as the cedar trees beside the waters." (24 Numbers, 5 and 6.) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Wherein is Considered the Cause of Jewish Greatness and Its 
Destiny. 

I have only endeavored to give the briefest outline of Jew- 
ish progress from the beginning of the Christian era to the pres- 
ent time. To have undertaken more would have enlarged the 
limits of this work far beyond its original design, and would 
have led me into a field that I have neither the ambition, the 
time nor the ability to explore. My purpose has been solely 
to state in meager outline the prominent events of Jewish his- 
tory in order that therefrom I might obtain, and present the 
factors of a problem, that it is proper for me to consider in 
this essay. 

It will have struck the reader as remarkable if not amazing 
that there should still exist a people who for so many centuries 
have been oppressed, persecuted and condemned — and yet more 
marvelous must appear the fact that this people, the Jews, 
is 1 great in numbers, spread over the whole face of the globe, 
enlightened and civilized to a high degree, physically, morally, 
and intellectually unsurpassed, excelling as financiers, artists, 
statesmen, musicians and philosophers ; — wonderfully free of 
criminals and prolific of moral exemplars and seemingly but 
Faunched upon a career of unrivalled greatness. What is the 
mystery of this indestructibility? Why do the Jews continue 
to exist under conditions that have destroyed all other peo- 
ples? 

A casual reading of history will discover that whenever two 
heterogeneous peoples have come in contact the one absorbed 
the other, or by amalgamation the two formed a new stock. 
And further, that when assimilation did occur the weaker people 
inevitably passed away. 

The aboriginal American, for example, savage though he 
308 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 309 

was, presented the noblest form of man in his native state. 
Brought in contact with a superior people, he refused to assimi- 
late, and in a few centuries the Indians have dwindled to a mere 
handful of drunken, treacherous wretches. The gypsies are 
rapidly disappearing from the face of the earth, and it is so of 
every race that preserves the purity of its blood and the prac- 
tice of its customs while subjected to the pressure of a superior 
power or powers. In all history the Jews stand alone. They 
are sui generis. To them no general rule in the philosophy of 
history can be applied. For two thousand years they have 
been scattered, hunted down, murdered, pillaged, tortured and 
despised; during all that time they have been stanchly loyal te 
their Penates and their religion, and to-day they are stronger^ 
wealthier, freer, more enlightened and more powerful than ever. 
What is the explanation? 

In discussing the origin of Jewish greatness I have already 
shown that the Jews can not be judged as other people — and 
again must we seek for new methods in solving the problem of 
Jewish indestructibility. The religious fanatic will satisfy him- 
self with the simple explanation that it was prophesied of old by 
those divinely inspired, and that they are the special care of 
Providence. Disraeli attributes it to the fact that they are an 
unmixed race of Caucasus.* Spinoza explains it by the stub- 
born adherence of the Jews to the rite of circumcision, and 
numerous other writers have advanced as many different theo- 
ries.! 

But something more than a prophecy; something in addi- 
tion to unmixed blood, and certainly something higher than a 



♦In "Coningsby" occurs the following: "You can not destroy a pure 
race of the Caucasian organization. It is a physiological fact ; a simpJe 
law of Nature, which has baffled Egyptian and Assyrian Kings, Roman 
Emperors and Christian Inquisitors. No penal laws, no physical tortures 
can effect that a superior race should be absorbed in an inferior, or be de- 
stroyed by it. The mixed persecuting race disappears ; the pure persecuted 
race remains. And at this moment, in spite of centuries, tens of centuries 
of degradation, the Jewish mind exercises a vast influence on the affairs of 
Europe. I speak not of their laws, which you still obey ; of their literature, 
with which your minds are saturated, but of the living Hebrew intellect" 

tRenau and Wellhausen maintain with much force that the Jews are 
no longer an unmixed race. 



3IO LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

mere rite, must be found to explain such phenomena as are 
iound in the lastingness of the Jews. 

Not any one of the peculiarities to be found among the 
Jews, but all or nearly all of them are responsible for it. Not 
the rite of circumcision, not their unmixed blood, not their ex- 
clusiveness, not their religion, not their sanitary and dietary 
laws, not their close and familiar communion with their God, 
not any one of these, but all of them combined have produced 
virtues physical, intellectual and moral, that nothing inimical 
could withstand, and which have withstood assaults of every 
character and of the longest duration. The elements that make 
tip a national or race character are as manifold as those which 
enter into the constitution of individual characters — and there 
is as little likelihood of finding perfection in the one as in the 
other. All a priori reasoning must fail in practical sociology, 
for the factors of the problems are always doubtful and fre- 
quently as uncertain as the solution which we seek to obtain. 
We must obtain theories by inductive reasoning based upon 
wide experience and practical observation. Plato and others 
constructed perfect governmental machinery upon paper, but no 
Utopian constitution could stand the strain of practical opera- 
tion. The founders of the American Government, rich in the 
wisdom of experience, framed the most perfect government 
ever known, and yet in less than a century millions of lives and 
treasure were spent to explain its meaning. 

The philosopher and the theologian will map out a perfect 
theory of education and moral discipline, and the military com- 
mander will formulate a perfect system of tactics; but be the 
theories never so plausible, experience has shown, as it always 
will show, that mere theories will not serve to educate the mind, 
the conscience or the body. Moreover there are operating influ- 
ences that are recognized but not understood or explained. The 
Almighty permits us to see His works, but withholds them from 
our understanding. Thus in medicine we find that physicians 
use certain drugs to produce certain effects, and that the effects 
are produced, but how or why they can not explain. 

"Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers * * * " 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 311 

It is perhaps not possible to perfectly explain the history of 
the Jews and why they have outlived the influences that have 
destroyed all other peoples similarly situated. But we do know 
that they have survived events that have been all powerful 
against others and powerless against them; we do know that 
they have remained strong under circumstances that made oth- 
ers weak; intelligent when others grew ignorant; wealthy 
when others grew poor; brave when others grew cowardly; 
refined when others became savage, and lastly, moral when oth- 
ers became debased and criminal. 

We know further that this people are distinguished by cer- 
tain peculiarities; that they have their own religion, from 
which all others sprung, and which is none the less vigorous 
because so often in parturition; that they have a peculiar sys- 
tems of laws semi-religious and altogether sanitary; that they 
have traditions and customs to which they cling with unequaled 
tenacity; that they are exclusive in social life; that they are 
jealous of the purity of their strain; that their homes are gov- 
erned by the old patriarchal principle; that filial and fraternal 
duties are practiced as of course; that they are singularly free 
from crime; that their vital statistics are better than any other 
people; that they are brave, enterprising, quick-witted and 
reliable, and above all that they worship one God, not so much 
according to a particular form, but in accordance with their re- 
ligion, which teaches that morality is religion. 

We may not be able to discover the nexus between the pe- 
culiarities of this people and their indestructibility, but it is only 
fair to connect the two and attribute the latter to the former. 
And further, it is but fair to argue that if such peculiarities 
have enabled this people to withstand a powerful pressure 
toward evil and have propelled them toward the good; if they 
have produced a people so strong, so brave, so powerful, healthy, 
enterprising, intelligent and law-abiding, then the world at large 
would be the loser if any of these peculiarities were abandoned 
— for to all of them we may fairly infer is due the character 
of this people, and the character and works of this people are 
of value to the world. 



312 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

I shall not pause to argue so plain a proposition as this 
latter. If the distinguishing characteristics of Jewish social 
and religiou life are responsible for the virtues of the Jews 
and not for their faults, the proposition is self-evident. But 
it will be as it has been maintained, that the virtues of the Jews 
are theirs as men, and not as Jews; that the same individuals, 
if Christians, would have developed the same qualities of head 
and heart. This is possibly true. Certainly the contrary can 
not be demonstrated, but it can be established as highly prob- 
able. If two sets of individuals live in the same climate, enjoy 
like surroundings and are subject to the same laws, and one 
set follows one hygienic system and the other set another, we 
naturally judge the merits of the respective systems by the re- 
sults. Yet this is far short of demonstration, for perhaps, with- 
out any system, the one set may have remained healthy as a 
class and the other grown sickly. The Jews have not enjoyed 
equal advantages under the law or in the schools, and yet they 
have, as a class, outstripped their neighbors. This fact is phe- 
nomenal and may not be explained by the theory of chance. 
If chance operates consistently for two thousand years, it rises 
to the dignity of a law. There is but one explanation, and that 
is the spiritual, domestic and physical life of the Jews. 

The practice of their religion, the observance of their tradi- 
tional customs, their oriental devotion to their parents, their ex- 
clusiveness, their pure and comparatively unmixed blood, are 
the basis of their greatness. Who would endanger the structure 
by undermining the foundation must crave the infamy of that 
wild youth who fired the temple of Ephesus that his name might 
be ever remembered. I have frequently insisted that the Jews 
have less to fear from the bigotry of others than they have 
from their own indifference. The world has come to recog- 
nize them as indestructible. Their destiny lies with themselves. 
The opportunity afforded them by the civilization and liberality 
of the nineteenth century surpasses all those enjoyed since they 
had a kingdom and a king. In most of the enlightened nations 
of the world, and notably in England, France and the United 
States, they have found a new Jerusalem. The future is theirs 



THE JEWS IN AMERICA. 313 

to be great or pass away from the earth forever. What will 
they do with it? Will it come to pass when the traveler from 
New Zealand stands on London bridge and muses over the ruins 
of St. Paul's that he will also seek in dusty tombs for the his- 
tory of the last of the Jews, or will he marvel then as we marvel 
now, that this one people of all others, and the only one, should 
survive pyramids and temples, coliseums and catacombs, des- 
potism and constitutions — and remain ever vigorous and young, 
as indestructible as the ocean by which they are so fitly sym- 
bolized ? 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 

A Commencement Address Delivered Before the Graduating 
Class of the University of Texas, June 14, 1899. 

In the physical sciences the outposts of one generation are 
points of departure for the next. Not so in the philosophy 
which deals with man's morals and happiness. There is scarce- 
ly a proper rule of human conduct which is not to be found in 
ancient writings, sacred or profane. The restatement of them in 
later days has consisted simply of giving new words to old 
ideas. 

The precepts of wisdom so early pronounced in the history 
of man have since been accessible to him as an inexhaustible 
storehouse of wealth. Their intrinsic merit has been invested 
with the charm of epigrammatic expression, and in proverbs 
the highest truths have been given universal currency. Unfor- 
tunately the treasures thus ready to our hands are not gen- 
erally enjoyed. The great majority of men fail to profit from 
either precept or experience. Of the rest, by far the greater 
number learn only from what befalls themselves and die before 
their education is half completed. The remaining few grasp 
the lessons taught by others, and to these we attribute the gift 
of genius. 

The commonplace, more than the extraordinary mind, re- 
quires counsel, but seeks it less eagerly and is benefited less 
thereby. So the weak plant (requires more nourishment than 
the strong, but is slower to send out roots in quest of or to 
utilize it when found. 

Lessons of truth are like the countless seeds which plants 
yield in their efforts at reproduction. An insignificant number 
germinate, and of these how few escape destruction before the 
bud develops into blossom, the blossom into fruit and the fruit 
into seed again. It is only under favorable conditions that the 

3H 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. . 315 

germ, however perfect in itself, will sprout and grow. If the 
soil be barren, the climate hostile or the planting unseasonable, 
there will be "none, or bitter fruit." The plainest truths ever 
uttered even by inspired lips will not find lodgment and growth 
in minds that are sterile, abnormal or distracted. 

When the triumphs of war inflame the mind, the philosophy 
of peace speaks to unlistening ears. Power silences reason, 
and the lust for conflict breaks the barriers of righteousness. 
It is an unequal contest between swords and syllogisms. The 
fairest breeze evokes no music from a harp with broken or dis- 
cordant strings. 

Therefore, every occasion of solemnity or joy is seized by 
the teacher to impart an appropriate lesson to minds made im- 
pressionable by the event celebrated. "A word fitly spoken is 
like apples of gold in pictures of silver." 

Thus impressed, I come not to interest the old by reminis- 
cences of the past, or the middle aged by discourse on the pres- 
ent, but to bear a message to the young whose eyes and hopes 
are set upon the future. 

The college final is life's commencement. For the young 
men and young women who have finished their school studies 
to-day a new career begins. They stand at the edge of a forest 
into which they are about to plunge. As they proceed with wis- 
dom or folly so shall they be happy or miserable. If they have 
any conception of the solemnity of this hour, what I shall say 
will not be commonplace to them, however it seems to others. 
The modest guide post which cannot claim a glance from the 
experienced traveler, deeply interests him who is a stranger to 
the road. 

Young women and young men ! Do not consider your school- 
ing as completed. The end of college days is the beginning 
of a new* education, in which the study of man in the practical 
affairs of life makes up the entire curriculum. Do not look 
upon the world as holding the prizes for which you must seek. 
Success in life depends, not upon what youth finds in the world, 
but upon what he brings to it. And what is that success, to 
achieve which you have studied here and are content to toil 



3l6 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

hereafter? Nothing is more important to consider, for if you 
proceed blindly or erroneously you will realize too late in bit- 
terness and sorrow the truths which the experience of others 
makes so plain to those who- have the wit to learn. 

Success is not synonymous with riches, or power, or fame. 
It may embrace one or more, or all of these, but who sets either, 
or all, as his goal, will grow heartweary in the quest and be 
heartsick even when the end sought is attained. Let me not 
be misunderstood as preaching a gospel of poverty, servility or 
indifference. On the contrary, I hold riches, power and fame 
in high esteem as ornaments and utilities of life. They are aids 
to success, but must not be confounded with it. 

The most appalling evil which pervades society is the dis- 
position to make riches the one great object of effort and sacri- 
fice. From the earliest times sages have pointed out the folly, 
the misery and the sinfulness of this disposition. The uniform 
testimony of those who have thus devoted their lives is against 
it, and yet men and women, generation after generation, with 
apparently incurable fatuity, pay any price for mere wealth. 
Health, peace, contentment, domestic happiness, reputation, aye 
even honor, are all thrown into the scale to make the weight 
demanded for riches, which, when acquired, cannot repurchase 
what has been paid for them, or secure other goods to take their 
place. 

If Robinson Crusoe on his lonely isle had exhausted his 
strength, undermined his health and denied himself recreation 
in order to build more habitations than he required, his folly 
would have been patent; but how few can see that beyond a 
certain point riches are as useless in the busy haunts of men 
as superfluous habitations would have been to the famous cast- 
away. Wealth is desirable enough as a means, but to make it 
the end of existence is the supremest folly. A strong arm is 
also desirable, but to make it abnormally so involves waste of 
time and effort, besides impairment of the general vigor. 

So uniform and universal is the proof that great wealth is 
an unworthy and disappointing end that few are willing to pro- 
claim the acquisition thereof as their life purpose. But many 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 317 

delude themselves and strive to delude others by tne avowal 
that wealth is sought as a "stepping-stone to higher things." 
Of these the most prominent are power and fame — the twin 
vanities which lure men from the paths of virtue and happi- 
ness. Power weighs heavily enough upon him who by reason 
of his fitness has it imposed upon him, it overwhelms him who 
is vainglorious enough to seek it. A wise king once said that 
"whoever knew the weight of a sceptre would not stoop to pick 
it up, though he saw it lying on the ground." 

And why should men seek fame when history so clearly 
proves that the only fame worth having ever eludes those who 
pursue it and flies to those whose deeds are prompted by duty 
alone? 

I hold it true that whoever deserves the good opinion of his 
fellowmen desires it. In praise he recognizes the sanction of 
his life by those who are influenced or affected thereby. But 
such a man does not shape his course to catch the popular 
breeze, or fancy himself great because he has attained an ephe- 
meral celebrity or won public office. He does not forsake the 
paths of peace, and the pleasures of home save when duty calls. 
The strenuous life is lived by him with courage when it is im- 
posed by duty, but he does not seek it for its vain rewards. He 
distinguishes wisely between the patriot in arms and the soldier 
of fortune. 

Only by ascertaining the true mission of life, devoting every 
energy to its fulfilment and subordinating thereto all meaner 
things, is happiness attainable, and happiness is success. 

The true mission of a woman is to be wife and mother; of 
a man to be husband and father. In that proposition is con- 
tained all of the rights and duties of both sexes, and the key 
to human happiness. It is the law of animated nature, the pre- 
cept of philosophy, the command of religion. 

The uplifting of woman from the ignominious station to 
which she was assigned in ancient and darker ages; her induc- 
tion into the fields of science, literature and art; her participa- 
tion in the conduct of bread-winning industries, have not re- 
lieved her of the obligations or shorn her of the privileges 



3l8 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

which hallow and crown her. Woman is no longer regarded as 
man's slave, plaything or divinity. From these conditions she 
has been freed by the broadening civilization of these later 
days. But her emancipation must not be misunderstood or mis- 
applied. She affronts her own dignity by any imitation of the 
habits and conduct peculiar to man, for in that she confesses 
the superiority against which she so earnestly protests. In the 
highest development of her own faculties along natural lines 
lies her mission of honor, usefulness and happiness. Though 
her increasing strength of mind and body enables her to enter 
fields that her predecessors never trod ; though she shine in the 
learned professions and win laurels in book-making, painting 
and sculpture, yet remains she a woman glorified alike by the 
limitations and the privileges of her sex. If she pursues any 
calling or career which disqualifies her from her real mission, 
she subordinates the higher to the lower purposes of life and 
makes that the end which should be only the means. 

The devotees of art are wont to prate of art for art's sake, 
as if it were some deity to be worshiped in preference to others 
that are recognized. I confess I have never appreciated this 
doctrine, if it may be so designated, and it has always struck 
me as a weak and vain attempt to escape those obligations to 
God and society which rest alike upon the peasant and the poet, 
the hewer of wood and the sculptor. 

So, too, we hear occasionally of women who set up art, 
science, literature, or even philanthropic work, to be worshiped 
and who set aside all considerations of family as impediments 
to success. I pity all such women. Though they suffer their 
minds to deal with problems only of vast, universal or infin- 
ite importance, though they toy with unfathomable mysteries 
and fancy that with rhetorical flashes they can make clear the 
darkness which the steady light of wisdom cannot penetrate, 
they miss the greatest of all lessons and lose the greatest of 
life's compensations. The abnormal aspirations of such a woman 
have blinded her to the light of love and made her deaf to the 
music of infant voices. They have shrunk her soul to the nar- 
rowness of her own purposes and left no room for God's. 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 319 

There is no education too high for a woman. There is no 
equipment, physical, mental or moral, too great for the office 
of wife and mother, and if she qualifies herself to be self-sup- 
porting she will the more highly esteem relations into which 
she is not forced by her helplessness. What I plead for in the 
training of woman is fitness for her career as a woman — not 
fitness merely to compete with men. 

What I have said in regard to the gentler sex is the opin- 
ion of most women and all men. The same reasoning upon 
which that opinion is based applies with equal force to man. 

Lord Bacon stands almost alone among great thinkers in 
his opinion that marriage is an impediment to greatness, and 
his statement that the greatest deeds have been performed by 
men who had not charged themselves with wives and children, 
he fails to support with examples or authority. 

Lucretius holds that the civilization of mankind resulted 
from marriage and the family relation, and Horace regarded 
the contempt into which home and family had fallen as the 
fountain-head of all the ills that fell on Rome. Juvenal's famous 
invective was not against marriage, but against the corrupt 
women of his time. 

A recent American law writer of high ability, after deep re- 
search, concludes that "Marriage is a relation divinely instituted 
for the mutual comfort, well-being and happiness of both man 
and woman, for the proper nurture and maintenance of offspring 
and for the education in turn of the whole human race;" and 
again, that "in the family, rather than individualism, we find 
the incentive to accumulation, and in the home the primary school 
of the virtues, private and public." "Marriage," says Sir James 
Mcintosh, "is the fit nursery of the commonwealth." History 
abundantly proves that the civilization of a nation can be meas- 
ured by the home life of its people. The home gives effective- 
ness to religion, tone to social life, stability to government and 
nourishment to the arts. It engenders worship of God, devotion 
to country, love for our fellow-men and the self-uplifting to 
higher and better things not otherwise obtainable. 

Nomads never progress far in civilization. They have no 



320 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

homes in the true sense of that term. The downfall of Greece 
and Rome in ancient times, and of France in the last century, 
was due, in each instance, to a misconception or disregard of 
the home life. 

You young men are rich in health, youth, energy, courage, 
intelligence, education and ambition. Perhaps you think with 
such wares you may aspire to some great destiny in which the 
home or family plays none, or an incidental part. If so, I would 
suggest that the consensus of opinion for many centuries upon 
a question of the kind under consideration is disregarded only 
by a temerity which shades into folly. Moreover, among the 
matured men within your acquaintance are many who in their 
youth possessed the same equipment in which you now rejoice. 
They had their wares ; observe what disposition they made 
thereof and the results. If you study their lives with half the 
zeal and intelligence you have bestowed upon your books, you 
will learn lessons of priceless value. 

You will learn how true it is that the wastefulness of youth 
makes the want of later years, and that this applies equally to 
riches, health and mental force. 

You will learn that the intemperate habits which are laughed 
at as the permissible follies of youth, even when discontinued 
before they become fixed, yet leave in wasted vitality and a 
debased moral sense their enduring mementoes. 

You will learn that youth with its energy and courage, be 
they never so great, steadily recedes before the conquering ad- 
vance of Time, and that the pleasures which were mistaken 
for happiness mockingly desert their old victims to seek the 
new. 

You will learn that he who chased the flying form of fame 
fell panting in the race dishevelled, bruised and spent, while to 
the misery of failure were added the jeers of the amused on- 
lookers. 

You will learn that he who made riches his one objective 
point, either failed to attain it; or worse still, made the difficult 
ascent only by throwing away, in whole or part, health, peace, 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 321 

friends, self-esteem and the joys of domestic life. You will 
learn that he lost the grain of life for its golden husk. 

You will learn that the boasted freedom of him who hath 
not wife or children is so hateful to the possessor that he will 
counsel all his friends to that sweet bondage, the avoidance of 
which was his undoing. 

You will learn further that though a man has achieved every- 
thing else for which he strove, but has failed in the home and 
family life, he has not found happiness ; that if he has succeeded 
in the home life, the pain of failure in this or that endeavor 
soon gave way to his enduring joys. 

If reflection convinces you that the true mission of man is 
to be husband and father; to establish and maintain a perfect 
home and to be the competent head of a worthy family, you 
will have a market for your wares — a definite goal for your am- 
bition — a purpose to attain which you can and should begin 
work at once. Do not underestimate the task. 

You must determine at no distant date where you will es- 
tablish yourself. In making your decision, keep in view your 
future home and family life. Do not be content because you are 
a young man, with a location unsuitable for such a home life 
as you aspire to. Study the climate, the healthfulness, the beauty 
and productiveness of the region, and the moral and intellectual 
tone of its people. Examine the county records and the court 
dockets. If you find that the people are not home-owners and 
that the dockets are crowded with divorce suits, go elsewhere. 

Having located, address yourself seriously to whatever call- 
ing you have chosen. Make yourself master of it, and pursue 
it with industry and fidelity. Returns will soon follow proper 
effort. Then will come great dangers. The first successes are 
apt to make youth think that the future struggles will be light. 
He too often becomes intoxicated thereby and not only loses 
the fruit of victory, but relaxes his vigilance and wastes his 
reserve forces. Thus the untrained captain, unmindful of the 
long strong line of battle which lies ahead, fancies that he has 
touted the enemy by driving back a few skirmishers. 

Let one success be a step to the next and push on. Be eco- 



322 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

nomical. That home which you have in view will be humble or 
stately, bare or beautiful, according to your means, and unless 
you be economical your earnings will not grow and your patri- 
mony will not remain. 

When recruits are mustered in the officers impress upon 
them the importance of caring for their health. It belongs, say 
they, not to the soldier, but to his country, and it is as much the 
soldier's duty to preserve it as his arms and ammunition. Your 
health does not belong to you alone. It belongs also to your 
country, to society, and above all, to your family. Your vital 
forces will decrease from day to day according to your con- 
sumption thereof. They are limited to the requirements of tem- 
perate life. If your labors, your habits, or your pleasures be 
abnormal, those forces will not only be prematurely exhausted, 
but their quality degraded. The glow of modern life is too 
often secured by burning it up. We study anatomy and physiol- 
ogy in a perfunctory manner and only learn that we have stom- 
achs and nerves when their derangement is accomplished. 

But industry, economy and health do not complete the qual- 
ifications which are required of you. Between the home and 
its social and political surroundings the most intimate relations 
exist. If society be debased or benighted, the moral and in- 
tellectual tone of its constituents will be affected thereby. There- 
fore, the uplifting and betterment of your social environment is 
your right and duty. 

The precious rights of life, property and liberty are guaran- 
teed by our State and our country. To insure the purity and 
wisdom of public laws, and the efficient and just enforcement 
thereof is not less the concern of the citizen than his own 
private affairs. The citizen participates alike in the glory and 
disgrace, the impotence and greatness of his country. From 
the individual to the nation flow the power, virtue and wisdom 
it enjoys, and to the individual these are returned in the bless- 
ings of order, protection and progress "as the sea returns to the 
rivers in rain." These reciprocal obligations require every man 
to be active for the public good in peace and war. Not active 
in exploitation of the public coffers, not active to secure power 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 323 

and glory for their own sakes, but active as patriots rendering 
the service that is due simply because it is due. 

In the ideal home to which every true man should aspire, 
all the virtues must unite. The wife and mother must bring 
the graces, the patience, the purity and the piety which make 
her domestic throne a shrine; the husband and father must 
bring the high qualities which distinguish the good citizen, the 
patriot, and the man of righteousness and honor. Solomon 
has described the woman; David the man. 

In nothing is man so eloquent as in setting forth the attrac- 
tive virtues of woman. As son, lover, husband or sire, he lays 
at her feet the tributes of praise. But alas! too seldom is the 
tribute of words accompanied by the tribute of conduct. If we 
exalt woman for her patient industry, her self-sacrificing devo- 
tion, her tender ministrations and her chastity, and cast her off 
for want of these, we find justification in the requirements of 
family and society. Nor can the justice of this be denied. The 
sternness with which we avert our faces from the unworthy 
woman measures our esteem for her who is not. But this jus- 
tice, if exact, is not impartial. The family and society make 
no demands upon one sex which should not be asserted against 
the other. They are not enforced with equal severity, it is true, 
but this is due to a perversion of rights and not to a difference 
between them. The man who renders himself unfit for his holy 
mission as husband and father is as culpable as the woman who 
does like violence to her duty as wife and mother. To set a 
high standard for woman compliments her; to set a like stand- 
ard for ourselves glorifies her. To make ourselves worthy o5 
the virtues we require in her is the only just recognition thereof, 
and the only rational basis of union. The perfect union is not 
between the indulgent angel and the flattering sinner, but be- 
tween two thoughtful serious persons, having in mind their 
mutual obligations and resolute to fulfil them. In poetry and 
romance the beauty of love is made holy; in the happy home 
the holiness of love is made beautiful. Considerations such as 
these should govern in forming the marriage relation. Upon 
man more than upon woman rests the responsibility for results. 



324 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME, 

Immemorial custom confers upon him the initiative ; nature and 
training have made him the stronger. He must not stop at a 
careful inventory of the contributions which will be made to the 
home by her who is to preside over it; he must examine his 
own. They cannot be too many or too great. Indeed, they 
rarely are enough. He is strangely free from man's infirmities 
who is altogether worthy of a woman's honor and a woman's 
love. He is indeed remarkable among his kind if he can be 
set up as a model for those to whom he has transmitted life. 
To be such a model is manifest duty, and brings manifest com- 
pensations. "In the place of the sires there shall their children 
be." You upon whose childhood and youth so much pains have 
been given by the parents now already nearing the close of 
their days, are what^your parents made you. They are respon- 
sible for you, and as you reflect credit or discredit upon the 
home from which you came, so are they rejoiced or saddened. 
Like responsibilities will rest on you hereafter. Young as you 
are, it is not too soon to think of them. Grapes do not grow 
from thorns. The life you live is the life you will transmit ; 
the habits of your life will be examples for your offspring. 

In your recent examinations, if you have been faithful stu- 
dents, you have not exhibited superficial proficiency as the re- 
sult of extraordinary efforts during the few weeks preceding 
the close of the session, but have demonstrated that throughout 
the term you have been training your minds by assiduous appli- 
cation to your studies. The diploma which does not mean that 
is worthless. 

The preparation for your career in life should proceed in 
the same way. You cannot degrade your person, your morals 
and your mind by intemperance, debauchery and debasing asso- 
ciations and expect in future years to suddenly qualify your- 
selves for the home and family life. If you have the elements 
of success you stand ready to make every sacrifice which suc- 
cess demands, and you will with fidelity bend every energy 
and faculty to making yourself fit physically, mentally and mor- 
ally not only to be a good citizen, a noble patriot, an able expo- 
nent of your vocation, an upright and honorable man, but to 



THE SUCCESSFUL LIFE. 325 

£& i -Md 

be all of these and more, the worthy husband and father. That 
is the successful life. 

This is all very trite. So are the Ten Commandments. So 
is the Declaration of Independence. So is the Constitution of 
our country. In the name of that country, its honor and its 
happiness, I beg you as factors in the destiny thereof turn not 
away from the truth because it is not new. On the contrary, 
let new ideas like strangers, while received with hospitality, 
be held under suspicion until they have proven their claim to 
your confidence. 

Modern civilization engenders new thought, but not new 
principles of right. The coining of phrases results in counter- 
feits unless they contain the metal of truth. Nero acquired no 
immortality because his courtiers called him a god. The Crea- 
tor did not cease to exist when the French abolished Him, and 
the Decalogue cannot be repealed by men or nations. Not des- 
tiny, but God, reigns, not might, but right, is the proper rule 
of conduct. 

It is because in these days so many time-honored principles 
have been assailed by insidious sophistry or brazen power that 
I have been impelled to employ this opportunity to assert and 
defend your true mission. Cupidity, ambition, and the brutal 
instinct of combativeness, under euphemistic titles, invite you 
to barter your precious wares for worthless trinkets. You are 
told that we of this age have outlived the traditions of our 
fathers ; that religion is an exploded superstititon ; that vic- 
tory is better than honor; that aggression is the mark of cour- 
age; that the duty of power is to dominate and spoliate the 
weak; that in the downfall of others is to be found our own 
uplifting; that to tread the paths of peace and the orderly de- 
velopment of home is to lead a life of ignoble ease. 

Against such heresies I come to enter my earnest if humble 
protest. Let us learn wisdom from the nations whose greatness 
was destroyed by their crimes. Let us learn anew that the vent 
for our talent and energies is not in the strenuous life which nour- 
ishes itself by preying on others, but in that other and better life 
which takes sustenance from Nature's swelling breast; that the 



326 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. .j 

virtue of the citizen is the source of social and national great- 
ness, and that this virtue is fostered, not in the camp of the con- 
queror, not on the rostrum of the demagogue, not in the counting- 
room of syndicates, but in the home. Happy the man, happy 
the woman, who grasps these truths — for they shall find that the 
family is a dynasty, the home a kingdom, the fireside a throne. 



FLAG PRESENTATION. 

May 2 [st, 1898. 

"Colonel Riche, Officers and Privates of the Gal- 
veston Regiment: The name which your regiment bears is 
honored wherever commerce has planted the seed or garnered 
the harvests of civilization. It stands for success wrested by 
energy from refractory environments. It stands for a city 
already in the front rank of the world's great seaports, and 
famous everywhere for the virtue of its citizens. These, from 
the oldest to the youngest, are proud to be Galvestonians. In 
the nature of things, they could not all be here to-night, but 
this magnificent gathering is here to represent them, and 
through me to deliver an appropriate message. From the center 
of this community, quivering from the throbs of a vast com- 
merce, to the suburbs where the cotter's humble home is glori- 
fied by domestic happiness, our people greet you and speed you 
with one voice and one heart. (Applause.) Some long for 
peace, some thirst for war, but all are for our country. (Enthu- 
siastic applause.) The differences among us preceding this con- 
flict are laid aside, and we all now read in the success of our 
arms a new epoch of justice, humanity and freedom. (Re- 
newed cheering.) 

"You will soon go forth to encounter the hardships and 
perils of war. You go consecrated by our name and inspired 
by the love of a country, great because her sons fatten her with 
their thrift in peace and protect her with their valor in strife. 

"To your safeguarding in this time of trial our people — 
your people — have directed me to give this sacred emblem of 
our nation's sovereignty. (Tremendous cheering.) This is the 
massage which I bear. 

"I cannot express in words the hopes and fears of humanity 
as reflected in these stars and stripes, but I venture to tell you 

327 



328 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

that conditions of the trust we impose upon you in delivering 
this flag to your keeping. 

"To you is allotted the duty of not only preserving the al- 
ready splendid military record of this city and this state, but 
also of adding new luster to the time-worn page. On the his- 
toric plain of San Jacinto our fathers made the enemy remem- 
ber the massacres of Goliad and Alamo. (Applause.) If you 
be worthy sons of such sires ; if you be fit guardians, when you 
plant or carry it in 'the red front of war' you will make the 
Spaniards remember the reconcentrados and the Maine. (Pro- 
longed cheering.) 

"We expect you to bring back this token of our confidence; 
but not as bright and as glossy and symmetrical as now. It 
may be full of rents and flutter to the breeze in smoke-stained 
patches, but it will be all the dearer because of the rents and 
stains that shall tell us where It has been. We will read your 
records in the wounds it bears. (Applause.) They will assure 
us that when the awful din and carnage of grim war put you to 
the supremest test you guarded our flag with unshrinking 
breasts, and carried it forward with resistless arms. We will 
know that you planted this standard in lands where God's soft- 
est breezes have waited so long to make the music of freedom 
by playing with its folds. (Cheers.) That hour has come, for 
nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that 
the colonial victims of Spain's misgovernment shall be free. 
(Applause.) 

"But not alone must you be valorous under this banner. Be 
effectively so. There is honor, it is true, in fighting to the death 
even though the fight be lost. Such honor even our enemies 
claim ; but as for you, remember that as Americans and as Tex- 
ans your traditions and your history require you not only to 
fight, and if need be to die. but above all, to fight and win. ( Ap- 
plause.) 

"Be cool as well as courageous, resolute as well as gallant; 
immovable in defense, irresistible in attack. Where this flag 
waves let foeman find the unyielding pluck which neither time 
nor torture can subdue. (Cheers.) 



FLAG PRESENTATION. 32Q 

"But you are charged with doing credit to this flag in other 
scenes besides those of battle. There are duties of the camp as 
well of the field. You must endure privations, fatigue, menial 
labor, hunger and pestilence. Upon the demeanor of this regi- 
ment in these relations rests also the honor of this banner, and 
so I say, if there be one among you, officer or private, who has 
not in cold blood, with a sedate mind, resolved to faithfully obey 
every command to which he is amenable, and to patiently bear all 
the ills which I have mentioned, let him not profane this stand- 
ard by daring to march beneath it. 

"Galveston expects every man to do his duty. (Enthusiastic 
applause.) You recognize the sentiment (renewed cheering) 
and recall the occasion when it thrilled the world. Let us draw 
inspiration from it. It came from our kindred across the sea, 
when they fronted the same foe who faces us now. Forgotten 
are enmities which divided us from England in days gone by. 
We only remember that we are of one blood and animated by 
the same aspirations for freedom, justice and fair play. (Pro- 
longed cheering.) 

"The sturdy speech which is common to them and to us is 
never so much in tune as when it tells of deeds like Waterloo 
or Trafalgar. Boys, I charge you to carry this flag so there 
will be new and not less glorious themes for song and story in 
our mother tongue. (Applause.) I do not doubt you will. 
Nor do I doubt that when this cruel war is over the whole 
world will listen to our words when we sing the homely lines 
which our English brethren have made into a classic: 

"We do not want to fight, 
But, by jingo, if we do, 
We've got the men, we've got the ships, 
And we've got the money too." 

(Much cheering.) 

"Some of you will never return in the flesh. In this crisis, 
for many of you will be snapped the link which unites the yes- 
terday without beginning and the to-morrow without end. We 



3^0 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

sorrow already in anticipation of the fearful price which must 
be paid for liberty and justice. But it has been ever so, and 
now as always, it must and will be paid from the treasures of 
American valor. (Applause.) 

"One word more: you will teach anew in battle how Ameri- 
cans can fight and win and the lesson will be written in blood. 
But you will meet others besides the armed foe. Prisoners, 
non-combatants, helpless women and children will be encoun- 
tered while your blood is still afire with the fury of conflict. 
In such solemn moments look at this flag and remember that 
our fame rests on your deeds. You are Americans and gen- 
tlemen, and you will teach the world that as such you have 
only lead and steel for contending foes, but for all the rest the 
tender care and protection of brave men. (Prolonged ap- 
plause.) 

"Take this flag, with all its inspirations and its burdens — 
take it with our prayers. 'May the Eternal bless you and guard 
you. May He cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious 
unto you.' And through your valor may our country soon con- 
quer a peace that shall open for us a new and enduring era of 
freedom and justice in which all the world may share." (Pro- 
longed cheering.) 



ADDRESS ON HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN 
CONSTITUTION. 

In the common disposition to acquire knowledge respecting 
matters far removed, we are not a little prone to overlook more 
important truths that lie immediately before us. The eye which is 
fixed upon some distant point does not comprehend in the scope 
of its vision the most proximate objects. It is this same mental 
idiosyncrasy that makes us overwise regarding the future, and 
over-foolish regarding the present. We have all heard learned 
and plausible prophecies as to the future destiny of a country, the 
present status of which was a sealed book to the prophet. And 
recurring to my first statement, who has not heard the pedant tell 
of the fauna and flora of Africa, Asia or Europe, without being 
able to give the correct names of the modest flowers or musical 
birds that grace his own garden. The habits of the house cat are 
unexplored mysteries to many who can discourse learnedly about 
the polar bear. The Bible, that nearest and dearest of books, is 
even among many who pass for intelligent and cultivated, best 
known by hearsay. 

When I protested against making any remarks upon so thread- 
bare a theme as our organic law, the gentleman who invited me to 
address you assured me that the field was ripe unto the harvest. 
It was confidently stated that very few of the average Americans 
could tell with any accuracy how our Presidents were elected. 
Such statements startled me at first, but a little investigation con- 
vinced me of their correctness. I have found young men and 
young women, too, who know more about the Republics of Greece 
than of the one under which they live. I have found others who 
know all about Magna Charta, and very little about the Declara- 
tion of Independence. I have talked with native Americans who 
know as little about the true development of our nation as they 
do about the rise of some ancient dynasty whose history has been 
lost to the world. 

331 



332 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

Having learned all this I have not only become reconciled to 
my task, but I am pleased with it. It is true it offers no scope for 
originality, unless I ignore the objects of these meetings. But 
upon reflection I hold that originality is oftener a curse than a 
blessing, especially to those upon whom it is inflicted. And after 
all the best originality is not the discovery of new truths, but the 
correct application of old truths to new conditions. It is with 
truth as with the Cereals. The world is not so much concerned 
in discovering new varieties, as in increasing the acreage and har- 
vests of those already known. If I can drop a seed in fallow soil 
tonight and make it germinate one blade of knowledge; if, to 
change the metaphor, I can direct a single mind to the study of 
the genius of our government, it matters not to me that the means 
have been made to my hand by others. 

I shall not attempt to discuss the constitution of the United 
States, upon any presumption that it is familiar to us. When I 
was invited to appear before you, the courteous bearer of the 
invitation indulged the presumption that I knew all about the sub- 
ject, and my promised audience nothing. There was some con- 
siderable violence to truth in this ide.a, but just where I will not 
undertake to say. Suffice that I have adopted one part of it. I 
shall treat the subject as if you knew nothing about it. In doing 
so, I feel sure I shall be wide of the mark ; not more so, however, 
than you will be in adopting the other part. In any event we will 
both be safe. If you hear an "oft told tale," its merit will save it 
from your harsher judgment ; and if my knowledge be very lim- 
ited, at least what I shall say will be correct, because I shall speak 
by, if not from the books. 

Within the limits I have prescribed for myself, it will be neces- 
sary for me to treat the subject cursorily, because anything like a 
comprehensive history of the constitution would carry the treat- 
ment beyond my ability to discuss and your capacity to endure. 

It would necessitate a complete review of American history, 
prior to the constitution. This would involve the consideration of 
the Declaration of Independence, and the causes which led to its 
adoption. We would have to examine into the separate charters 
of each of the thirteen colonics and the governmental systems pre- 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 333 

vailing in each. We would be required to study the articles of 
confederation and the revolutionary war, and then we_ would but 
have done the prefatory work. There would remain the constitu- 
tional convention, the legislative debates, the constitutional amend- 
ments, the rise of political parties, the radical differences of con- 
struction, the late war and the era of reconstruction. Whole li- 
braries have been written about this remarkable constitution, so 
that it would tire you to have read to you only the titles of the 
works treating of it. 

We must content ourselves with a mere mention of the most 
salient points — 

The thirteen original states were before the adoption of the 
constitution distinct colonies, each existing under a distinct char- 
ter from the crown of England. Privileges granted and restric- 
tions imposed in some of these charters were altogether or partly 
omitted from others. They were all dependents on the King of 
England ; they were all inhabited by people of English birth or de- 
scent ; in all, English was the common language ; to all or nearly 
all, the savage was a common foe and Europe a common field 
for commerce. Upon all, England, through parliament, sought to 
impose and did impose burdens, which at first excited separate 
complaint, and afterwards united protest; which led first to re- 
sistance by one and finally to revolt by all. 

But while the colonies had so many interests in common, there 
were not a few circumstances in which their interests were dis- 
tinct or hostile. In some fishing, ship building and shipping were 
chief industries ; in others, manufactures and in still another class, 
agriculture. In some the slave was deemed a necessity ; in others 
where he was not required, slavery was an abomination. The 
colonies were of different dimensions, population, climate and 
local situation. They were naturally jealous of one another, and 
it required in the first instance a great common danger to relegate 
to a second place the manifold differences which bristled among 
them in opposition to union. That common danger was the threat- 
ened tyranny which England was seeking to establish in the reg- 
ulation of Colonial affairs. 

In 1765 parliament passed the "stamp act." This was followed 



•^4 LE0 N - LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

by other despotic measures and the mutters of a coming storm 
were heard by those who knew the temper of the colonists. Still 
there was no mention of resistance by actual force. Patrick Hen- 
ry in 1765 defined in the Virginia assembly, the rights of the col- 
onies to make their own laws and impose their own taxes. He 
was the great Home Ruler of his day. Following the Virginia 
assembly came that of Massachusetts, which proposed a congress 
of the colonies. The proposition met with favor and in October, 
1765, the congress convened at New York. It breathed a spirit of 
loyalty to Great Britain that gave no promise of the outbreaks 
so soon to follow. This congress indeed enjoys its greatest sig- 
nificance from the fact that it showed the colonies that by such 
conventions they could unite for their common welfare. 

After the parliamentary attack on the charter of Massachusetts 
in 1774, Virginia suggested and Massachusetts called the second 
convention of the colonies. It is commonly called the first Conti- 
nental Congress, because the one held in 1765 was so meagerly 
attended as to hardly deserve the title. The congress of 1774 was 
attended by the representatives of twelve of the thirteen colonies, 
Georgia alone not being represented. 

This congress again respectfully addressed the crown, but 
there was an unmistakable undertone, which was clearly audible. 
It was prominent in two measures adopted. One was the articles 
of association, in which a plan was matured, by which everything 
English was to be boycotted (as we would now say). The other 
was an expression in favor of the resistance made by Massachu- 
setts to English aggressions and the implied promise of support 
if force were offered by England to subdue the opposition. Trou- 
ble was anticipated from these measures and the delegates fore- 
seeing it did not adjourn sine die, but to meet again in May, 1775. 

In April, 1775, the conflict at Lexington occurred and the 
first blood was shed in the struggle for liberty. 

When the congress met on May 10, 1775, the condition had 
arisen which recalled the implied promise made to Massachusetts 
eight months previous. The pledge was not forgotten nor vio- 
lated. An army was recognized, rather than organized, as the 
N American Continental Army. George Washington was chosen to 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 335 

command it and his commission as commander in chief was issued 
on June 17, 1775, the very day on which was fought the battle of 
Bunker Hill. But all this time there was only resistance, not re- 
volt. On the contrary, while fighting battles, equipping war ves- 
sels, issuing paper money and exercising all the prerogatives of a 
nation, the idea of independence was protested against with hor- 
ror. 

But in January, 1776, Thomas Paine's common sense pamphlet 
openly advocated Independence. It met a warm welcome every- 
where in America, and the course of events strength end its popu- 
larity. In June Richard Henry Lee moved his famous resolution, 
and on July 4, 1776, Congress adopted the masterpiece of Thomas 
Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence. This was the birth- 
day of the United States as declared by the highest Court in the 
land. 

You will observe that this Congress was composed of delegates 
from distinct sovereignties and that no form, however crude, had 
been adopted for managing the common affairs of the colonies. 
They met like so many allies in a common war. It was not until 
near the close of 1777, that this Congress adopted the articles of 
Confederation, and these were not acceptable to New Jersey, Del- 
aware and Maryland. 

If we had time, it would prove profitable to examine in detail 
this first expedient at government. It was a lamentable failure. 
It contained no element of cohesion, except that which proceeded 
from the danger of war. When that was pressing there was some 
unity of action among the colonies; when it was removed even 
temporarily, Congress was treated with indifference or contempt. 
So weak indeed was this semblance of a government that our in- 
dependence may be attributed rather to the unpopularity of the 
war in England, than to the vigorous efforts of the colonies. It 
may surprise you to learn that at no time did England have more 
than 33,000 troops engaged in the Revolutionary war and these 
were in a large measure mercenaries. In 1782 the war ended and 
in 1783 a treaty of peace was entered into. 

All danger from without being ended the troubles at home 
began. Peace brought on the greatest crisis of the Western 



336 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

world. The colonists who bared their bosoms to the bullet for the 
sake of liberty, could not be stirred to enthusiasm to preserve it. 
The people and the country were poor to a degree that was pain- 
ful. Commerce was at a standstill, agriculture had more or less 
been neglected, and now the citizen turned wearily from the public 
cares to provide for the pressing needs of himself and family. The 
tax gatherer was treated with contempt or violence, and the gov- 
ernment's treasury was empty. The troops were clamoring for 
pay and the officers for rewards. They cried for bread and Con- 
gress could only offer stones. Liberty degenerated into license 
and the prevailing discontent among the soldiers and the indif- 
ference among the civilians offered, but two apparent alternatives, 
anarchy or a King. Washington was urged to accept a crown, 
and doubtless he could have established a dynasty had he not put 
aside the temptation between him and the popular freedom for 
which he had fought so ably and endured so much. 

The only escape from the alternative named was in another and 
stronger scheme of government, in which liberty should be pro- 
tected by power, adequate for its preservation against attack from 
within or without. To attain such a scheme seemed well nigh im- 
possible. Difficulties unnecessary to mention stood in the way of 
a Convention and it was only by an accident that one was as- 
sembled. 

The navigation of Chesapeake Bay was the subject of a con- 
ference between Maryland and Virginia in 1785, the delegates 
meeting at Washington's residence. At this meeting Maryland 
proposed a convention of the colonies for the regulation of com- 
merce. It met at Annapolis in 1786 and proved a failure, but 
when it adjourned another convention was recommended by it, to 
meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787. Congress approved the call, 
and just eleven years after Congress at Philadelphia had declared 
the colonies free, the great convention assembled at Philadelphia 
to insure their liberty by establishing their Union. 

The constitutional convention was not a large body of men. 
There were only fifty-five delegates, but every delegate was an 
intelligent giant. The choicest spirits of the colonies were assem- 
bled in the solemn consideration of an instrument upon the sue- 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 337 

cess ful completion of which hung the destiny of the Western 
Hemisphere. If the supreme importance of their labors had es- 
caped their conception, they might well have been forgiven. They 
could not in the nature of things know the extent or resources of 
the vast domain to be directly affected by the government they 
were to upbuild; and even in a much smaller degree were they 
acquainted with the great territory to the south wherein the seed of 
liberty would quicken into life under the influence of our success- 
ful revolt against monarchy. But they did comprehend in a vague 
way, all that the century has brought to pass. There were minds 
there assembled, who looked forward with confidence to the time 
when from the Arctic ocean to Cape Horn there would be no gov- 
ernment that was not based, broad and deep, upon the popular 
will. That hour has come to pass. Our neighbors to the north 
are free to part company with England, if they chose so to do, 
and to the south the last crown took flight to Europe on the 
vessel that carried Pedro from a country which, much as it loved 
that great and good ruler, loved liberty yet more. 

The delegates represented a constituency about one-twentieth 
of the present population of the United States. They represented 
people whose entire commerce even figured per capita was trifling 
compared to that which now exists. No human intellect could 
foretell the changes that have occurred, but that changes would 
occur, and that they would be momentous was deemed a fore- 
gone conclusion. These great men dealt with the problems before 
them with great earnestness and deliberation. They knew the 
responsibilities which rested upon them, and their labors in dis- 
charge thereof extended over a period of four months and three 
days. 

George Washington of Virginia presided. Among the dele- 
gates were James Madison of Virginia, afterwards President of 
the United States ; Edmund Randolph, afterwards Secretary of 
State; Benjamin Franklin and the two Morris' from Pennsyl- 
vania; Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts; Roger 
Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, the latter after- 
wards being the chief justice of the United States; Alexander 
Hamilton of New York ; Paterson of New Jersey and the Pinck- 



338 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

neys and John Rutledge of South Carolina. In any convention 
composed of such material, whatever the business before it, a 
variety of views would be looked for, and every opinion would 
have able champions. In the constitutional convention, aside 
from the marked individuality of the delegates, there were many 
causes and grounds of difference. I have already mentioned some 
of them. I shall pass by all of those that were finally set at 
rest without making too marked an impression on our govern- 
mental chart. There were some contentions, however, that can- 
not be passed by without losing the lights by which the consti- 
tution must be studied. 

The first wrangle arose over the basis of representation in 
Congress. The large states desired only a single legislative body, 
which should be chosen with reference only to population, and 
be clothed with the power of making laws and appointing all 
leading officers. This was called the large State plan, because 
it would manifestly give the large states the controlling voice in 
national affairs. It is worthy of observation that New York, now 
the most populous of the States, was then among the small states, 
and at one time her delegates withdrew from the convention in 
anger, because they thought the small states were not receiving 
fair treatment. The small states also wanted a single house, but 
insisted that each state, without reference to size or population, 
should have an equal voice in the national matters. A deadlock 
ensued, and the situation had to be relieved by the first great 
compromise. Congress was made to consist of two bodies, in 
one of which (the House of Representatives) the large state 
plan prevailed, and in the other of which (the Senate) the small 
state plan was adopted. The manner of electing the president 
after repeated efforts was also reached by a similar compromise. 
The second great contention arose over the slave trade, and this 
was also settled by an agreement that the traffic should not be 
interfered with for twenty years. 

The third great difference grew out of the representation from 
slave-holding states. This was also composed by the famous 
compromise which gave to the slave states representation for 
three-fifths of the slaves. In passing I may remark that the basis 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. , 339 

of representation required an enumeration of the people, and thus 
was inaugurated for the first time in modern governments a sys- 
tematic census. When we reflect what wise lessons are drawn 
from statistics, we wonder why in modern times it was only as 
an incidental necessity that a census was provided for. The great- 
est statesman of any age, Moses, "had a census thousands of 
years before, but his example was neglected in this respect, as 
his precepts in many others have been disregarded. 

It will be seen that the constitution was not the creation of 
a single mind. Indeed, it was no creation at all. It grew as it 
were from the friction of the many intellects engaged in its con- 
sideration. It was an evolution which proceeded during the 
whole summer of 1787, and when th£ end was reached there 
was not perhaps a single delegate who voted for it who was 
wholly pleased with it. Each bad been overruled upon some 
point and all had been constrained to leave, as unsettled, some 
questions that were then too critical to be touched. It was 
deemed wiser to defer until after times matters which, if then 
pressed to solution, would have wrecked the fabric of union. The 
Declaration of Independence proceeded from one brain and pen. 
It is a document written in enthusiasm and adopted in a like 
fever. It displays the want of calm deliberation ; but the con- 
stitution is cold, dignified and indicative of the hard battles which 
were fought over nearly every word in it. While it was being 
formed the people regarded the convention with mild contempt. 
The fishermen of New England, the hunters of the West and the 
planters of the Middle and Southern States, as a rule, either ig- 
nored the action of the men who labored so long and so faith- 
fully in their behalf, or sneered at their efforts to accomplish 
what was deemed almost impossible. At length the work was 
done and submitted to the Continental Congress with certain 
recommendations in reference to its adoption. The arbitrary 
provision for ratification of the constitution by nine of the states 
was carefully ignored, and Congress, fearful of its own powers, 
refused to do more in the premises than to send the constitution 
to the Colonial legislatures for consideration. 

Then began the learned and exciting debates in which every 



340 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

phase of the constitution was carefully analyzed. In every legis- 
lature the battle raged fiercely, and for a while the fate of the 
constitution hung in a critical balance. The newspapers teemed 
with able discussions, and many of these are still preserved as 
literary, political and legal classics. The efforts of Hamilton, 
Madison and Jay in the newspapers and pamphlets of the day 
have long since been gathered into a volume, in which the con- 
stitution is thoroughly analyzed, explained and defended. The 
work is known as the Federalist, and no higher praise can be 
accorded to it than to say that it is everywhere used as a text 
book on Constitutional law, and is regarded as authority in all 
our courts. # 

Nine states ratified the Constitution before New York or Vir- 
ginia voted, and when these did vote the Constitution carried 
only by slender majorities. North Carolina refused in the first 
instance to ratify at all, and in Rhode Island it was not even 
considered. After its ratification by eleven states Congress pro- 
ceeded to organize the new government, so far as it could. An 
election was ordered, and George Washington was chosen presi- 
dent and John Adams vice president. The inauguration took 
place March 4th, 1789, and in due time all of the departments 
were organized. 

This in brief is an account of how the Constitution was 
framed and adopted. It remains but to state that the first ten 
amendments grew out of the legislative debates and were adopted 
in 1 79 1, so shortly after the Constitution itself as to be consid- 
ered almost a part of it from the beginning. 

Let us now proceed to consider the Constitutional Amend- 
ments. 

They are not voluminous. Over four months of steady labor 
by the able delegates assembled produced a work not exceeding 
4,300 words. Over a century has passed since their deliberations 
ceased, and despite the vast changes in all conditions during that 
time we have added only about fifteen hundred words, making 
the total organic law. as it now exists, comprised within 7,000 
words. When it is remembered that the first ten amendments 
were adopted almost with the Constitution, and grew out of the 



HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 34I 

discussion of the latter when submitted for ratification, we can 
appreciate the great foresight of those who framed our govern- 
mental system. Let us pause to make a few comparisons. The 
convention at Philadelphia represented a population of about 
three millions. Their system has endured successfully for a 
century, requiring practically only five amendments, and now is 
regarded with the highest favor, not only by the sixty millions 
who live under it, but by all the liberty loving people of the 
earth. The stage coach has given place to vestibuled trains ; the 
canal boat to the fast steamboat; the lugger to the ocean grey- 
hounds ; the slow mails to the telegraph. All the material con- 
ditions and relations of life have been radically changed; a new 
civilization has replaced the old, but so well conceived was the 
Constitution, so well expressed, and its factors so nicely bal- 
anced that it has never been seriously suggested in all these years 
that altered conditions required any material change in the or- 
ganic law. 

In this state, formed with the United States as a model, we 
have in a little over fifty years had five constitutions, and to-day 
we are heartily dissatisfied with the one we have. The present 
Constitution of Texas is several times more voluminous than the 
National Constitution, and was designed to meet all the ills that 
flesh is heir to — and herein we see how its framers departed from 
the model set before them. Congress has only such powers as 
are granted by the Constitution; the legislature of the state has 
all the powers not denied by the State Constitution and the 
National Constitution, laws and treaties. The National Consti- 
tution is brief, leaving details of legislation to the changing re- 
quirements that may present themselves ; — the State Constitution 
enters into details, as if no other body of men that should follow 
its framers would ever possess the patriotism or wisdom which 
characterized them. These latter, distrusting the people, ignored 
the fundamental principle of our government, while the framers 
of the National Constitution, jealous, as they were, of concen- 
trating power, recognized this truth, that wherever the people so 
far forgot their rights and surrendered their liberty as to sub- 
mit to an abuse of power, no written instrument, howsoever vo- 



342 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME. 

luminous or clear, could stay the rule of tyranny. Accordingly, 
they simply framed our system in its broadest outlines, leaving 
the details to develop themselves. The government was divided 
into three co-ordinate branches, each independent of the others, 
viz., the Legislative, Judicial and Executive branches. The first 
makes the laws, the second construes them, the third executes 
them. 

The Constitution in which this division is made and the ma- 
chinery of government provided is divided into a brief preamble 
and seven articles. 

The first article relates exclusively to the legislative depart- 
ment; the second to the executive and the third to the judicial. 
The fourth deals with the States in their relations to one another 
and to the nation. The fifth makes provision for amending the 
Constitution. The sixth relates to the existing public debt, the 
supremacy of the national law and the oath of fealty. The sev- 
enth provides for the ratification of the Constitution by not less 
than nine states. 

The first ten amendments were adopted in 1791 ; the nth, in 
1798; the 12th, in 1804; the 13th, in 1865; the 14th, in 1868, 
and the 15th, in 1870. 



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